Vote early, vote often

A few reflections from Election day in America:

- Going about Seattle yesterday there were people on street corners holding up signs, usually for the Obama/Biden ticket. This is in Seattle, Washington, where there fact that Obama would win the state, and therefore the electoral votes, was never in doubt. It is impressive to see the commitment that people have to their cause - I can't ever remember seeing something like that in the UK.

- Election coverage is not quite on the same scale as it is in the UK. Possibly this is because, with local coverage and advertising breaks, there is not as much time for the amount of debate that there is in the UK. With polls closing through the evening, the big times occur at the top of the hour when states are declared by the networks as to who has won them. However, they are careful to only do this when voting has finished in a state. Therefore, although it was obvious that Obama had won from the moment he won Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, it was only declared when the big western states (including Washington) closed at 8pm local time. However, this efficiency (and the time zone I am in) means it was all done and dusted before bedtime!

- The big gadget for explaining results are touch-screens which can do all sorts of manipulation of maps and data. This is much better than Jeremy Vine wearing a cowboy outfit (as seen in the last local elections in the UK) - can we have this too, please?

- In the end, the Democrats got a victory that has been on the cards for the past 2 years. The Republicans played all the right cards to try and win it, by selecting in John McCain a candidate who was not a mainstream Republican (personally I would have liked to see Rudy Gulliani in that role, but McCain was a sensible choice) and in Sarah Palin someone who helped bring new life to a campaign that was nearly over in the summer. If the Democrats had selected Hillary Clinton, then the race would have been significantly tighter than it was last night, and McCain (with, I expect, a different running mate) could conceivably have won.

- The replacement for election ads on the TV appears to be Christmas ads - is it really that time of year again?