Election Night Timeline Series Thread

[Dancing with Myself]

I have been away from this board for too long, so since I am in my break I will try to start a new timeline thread up, this time about Election Night timelines that I usually do, except that these all follow in a series one after another. So be on the lookout for this, the first one is Election Night 1960.

[Dancing with Myself]

Election Night 1960 NBC News

Chet Huntley: Good Evening from NBC News Election Central. For several Million Americans,  tonight is expected to be close and should be an exciting night for everyone involved. We all could either have the master of the legislature as our President, or a man who wants to continue the legacy of the man he served under for eight years, regardless change is going to be coming nationwide, and tonight will be an indication of what kind of change it will be. So settle down, relax, enjoy yourselves, grab a pencil and some paper, and I expect some of you to do a little dial twisting but we all expect you to return here as we believe we are the most accurate coverage on television.  The returns will be shown in a moment

David Brinkley: Good Evening as well, we are all here, the returns will be coming in rather fast as we promised, so let's go to out summary boards which show the current totals of what is going on at this moment:

Nixon (R):
441,043

Johnson (D):
439,327

Nixon has a small lead so far with about a million or so votes counted, nothing significant as of yet. In the Electoral College, which actually elects the President, we cannot call a state as of now, but the candidates are leading in several of them:

Nixon- Leading: 38
           Won:0

Johnson-Leading: 20
              Won:0

Unpleged Delagates- Leading:0
                                  Won:0


That is it because of the so few results in so far tonight. When a state is called,  our computer on the other end of the building will project it, and if our victory desk sees the trend in it, we will project the state for a candidate. It has not happened as of yet, but when it does, you all will be the first to know about it. Chet?

Huntley: Thanks David.  For clarity purposes we have broken the country up into four regions: East. South, Midwest, and the West, and you all will be introduced to them later in the night, but we will be heading to the south first, here's Frank Mcgee with some Senate calls.

Frank Mcgee: Chet, we can call the two senate races in Georgia and South Carolina is neither incumbent faced an oppent this year, that is the normal scenario in the south this year regarding the senate races, however there may be a few closes races in the border states so we will keep a close eye on those.

In the Presidential race in Georgia and South Carolina, Johnson is leading, and maybe we can call those races before long. David?

Brinkley: Before we go to our commercial break, we have our first state projection of the evening, NBC News projects the state of Vermont will go to Vice President Nixon, bring his total of electoral votes to 3. We will return in just a moment.

Nixon/Lodge-3
Johnson/Symington-0

[hcallega]

Very interesting premise. Also very accurate. I would imagine Johnson would pick Symington, as Kennedy came quite close to doing.

[Dancing with Myself]

Very interesting premise. Also very accurate. I would imagine Johnson would pick Symington, as Kennedy came quite close to doing.

Thanks for the feedback!

I was going to have Johnson/Humphrey originally, but decided against it as I remembered about Symington, and how they worked in the Senate together.

[Dancing with Myself]

Brinkley: Welcome back, Nixon is leading with three electoral votes and Johnson currently does not have any. Three more states close at 7:30 eastern time: North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia, and none of them are considered safe states, so most likely we will have to watch and see what happens in this state. Chet?

Huntley: We have two more Senate races to declare in the states of Kentucky and Virginia the two incumbents Cooper A Republican, and Robinson the Democrat will win bringing the totals tonight to 3 Democrats elected in the Senate to 1 Republican. In the House of Representatives so far tonight, with two declared seats in the Republicans have 1 pickup, and are expected to have more by the end of the night.

Senate Democrats: 3 +-0
Senate Republicans: 1 +-0


Let's go to David with a new state projection.

Brinkley: Chet, NBC News can now project that the states of Georgia and South Carolina will go to Senator Johnson as expected, and will give him the lead going into 7:30.  Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia is still out with Nixon leading in Indiana and Kentucky, and Johnson leading by a point.  The polls have had Nixon leading in all three states, so that will be interesting to see if that comes true or not. Chet?

Johnson/Symington-20
Nixon/Lodge-3

Huntley: Thank you Chet, it is now time for our local stations to take over for a few moments so that the viewers can find out about your local races. We will be back at 7:30, stay tuned.

[Dancing with Myself]

I'll have some more posts up tonight, I just had work to get done yesterday and it took me longer than expected.

[Dancing with Myself]

Brinkley: Welcome back, it's now 7:30 pm on the east coast, and three new states have closed: North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. We can now call one of those states and one of the 7:00 pm states. NBC News projects the state of Indiana will go to Vice President Nixon by a solid margin, and NBC News can also predict that the traditional Democratic state of West Virginia will stay that way as it will go to Senator Johnson as expected.

Johnson/Symington-28
Nixon/Lodge-16

This now gives Nixon 16 electoral votes to Johnson's 28, but Nixon is leading in the popular vote by 3%. This can prove to be significant later on in the night if the numbers stay the same. Let's now go to Chet for a Senate call.

Huntley: David, NBC News can project in the state of North Carolina that Incumbent Senator B. Everett Jordan will win another term in office by a comfortable margin. His opponent was Kyle Haynes, a young North Carolina state senator, who is not going to move up to Washington, but is going to return to the North Carolina State house.

In West Virginia, the race has been close the whole season and it is to early to make a call. Incumbent Democrat Jennings Randolph is facing an unexpected challenge from Governor Cecil Underwood, who is unable to run for another term due to term limits.  With what little we have in, Underwood has a 1% lead, but we must continue to watch the race for sure. 

So with the addition of the North Carolina race, that increases the number of elected Democratic senators tonight to 4.

Democrats- 4 +-0
Republicans- 1 +-0

Brinkley: Let's now go to our two network correspondents who are with the candidates. First is NBC Correspondent Herb Kaplow who is with Nixon in Los Angeles, California. Herb?

Kaplow: David, Vice President Nixon and his family are staying at the Ambassador Hotel here in Los Angeles watching the returns, and are expected to make an appearance sometime later tonight to make a speech, what kind of speech, no one knows. I am in the ballroom which is being fixed for the party, as this area has just finished with it's last event that was help previously today.

Nixon finished campaining after 11:00 AM this morning, as he flew from San Diego to his hometown where he voted, and returned here to Los Angeles. He later left his party and drove to Mexico, saying he needed to clear his mind, but he has returned now and is resting while watching the returns. Herb Kaplow, NBC News, Los Angeles, Califonia.

Brinkley: Now let's go to Ray Sheror, who is with Senator Johnson in Austin, Texas.

Sheror: David, I am in the Driscoll Hotel in Austin, Texas that is the HQ of the Johnson party here tonight as they watch the returns. From what I have heard so far tonight, they are quite glad that they have had the lead so far into the night, but Johnson is rather nervous when the 8 o'clock states will close, because Nixon is expecting to do well in those states. Johnson is also watching his senate race, as if he loses the Presidency, he will return to the senate possibly as the Democratic leader, if he is not challenged by John F. Kennedy, who is planning to run for the position if Johnson is elected. Johnson's senate race is predicted to be a win for Johnson, but he is not taking anything for granted tonight. Ray Sheror, NBC News, Austin Texas.

Brinkley: Thank You Ray, we will have more about tonight's election in just a moment.