Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Election Night On The web

Bing Elections Website
National Results
   There are several web tools for keeping informed on the election night happenings.  Nationally, the Associated Press, Politico, and Bing have some great features. CNN & Fox News also do a decent job of covering the national scene.
The Old Google Elections interface. It was great for 2012
   Google Elections used to be my favorite, but they seem to have disappeared without a trace or change of address. Any web search for Google Elections will take you to their Google+ effort.
  The disappearance of Google is a big mystery. Bing and others will benefit greatly from this screw up. 


Oklahoma Results
NewsOn6 / News9
KOTV, in Tulsa, along with the sister station in OKC ( KWTV channel 9), have demonstrated a superior commitment of manpower and planning for the past few election cycles. But they are not the only player in town. 
  Local coverage got a big setback because of the state legislative action of a few years back.
Oklahoma Election Board
    Whereas county election boards used to release tabulated results immediately; they now have to send all data to the state election board. The backlog of data sits there until state bureaucrats get around to each of the 77 counties. Only after that data is confirmed and input, can the numbers be reported from the state election board. Lately that has added an hour or more of delay.
  Media outlets have filled in that gap with local poll-runners who capture neighborhood precinct results even before the precinct staff can return the box to the county election board office, in downtown Tulsa. But the poll-runners from media outlets only typically get less than 10% of the precincts.
TV
Unless you tune in to the OETA network, you'll likely have to spend the evening watching NCIS, the Voice, or other pop culture offerings in order to get those little tidbits of partial returns and teases for their 10pm coverage.
Radio
  For radio coverage, KRMG of Tulsa has been a standard of news coverage. This year they partner with Fox23 to share the news crews. We'll see how well that works? KFAQ does a lot of talking, but their low-budget operation lacks a real news crew out in the communities.  
  Oklahoma City has KTOK & KOKC stations for news and talk. It's not clear how much real news can be expected from them.

Blogging
30+ Bloggers are featured
at SoonerPolitics.org
  There are a massive number of bloggers providing great coverage and often they break news stories from the "smoke filled rooms" and party headquarters.  SoonerPolitics.org is one of the best aggregate feed sources for over 30 conservative bloggers and news sources.
  Of course we have to add social media to the list of election coverage. Facebook, Twitter, and other outlets have extensive Oklahoma content, but you have to find and add yourself to each of the  groups found on these websites. SoonerPolitics has a page and discussion group on Facebook.
David Van Risseghem

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