Election Madness

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006

Tonight at The Post is one of the most important nights of the year: our annual Dance Party … er … Election Day. But impromptu dancing (what we call “one minute dance parties”) is definitely necessary to stay calm. I apologize for not posting pictures; all of them were destroyed by a malfunction in the camera I borrowed from a copy editor.

Election Day is one of the busiest days in the newsroom. It is also my first time as an active participant in election night, having never been on city staff to cover an election. This isn’t just any election, but the night that our state will get a new governor, likely a Democrat (preview: Familiar faces tout platform). Meanwhile Ohio has a big say in a possible Democratic takeover of Congress, including a U.S. Senate seat up for grabs (preview: Races focuses on jobs, economy). There are also three important issues on the ballot concerning a smoking ban, gambling and the minimum wage (preview: Voters control future of constitutional amendments).

Planning for election night happens weeks in advance for city staff. City Editor Kantele Franko decided whether races would be covered by staff or Associated Press stories. She even worked with the front-page designer to have the protodesign of Wednesday’s front page ready to go.

3:46 p.m.:
After taking an hour to vote at the overcrowded polls, I arrive late to the newsroom and start surfing the wire for projected election stories. Editor Brittany Kress and Kantele are already mapping out where the election stories will go in the paper.

5:10 p.m.:
Breaking news: Forget election. The big news on everyone’s mind: Britney Spears got a divorce! The newsroom cheers. We need to get that in the paper. I mark it down for our News/Events section.

9:11 p.m.:
Lined up in the courthouse like criminals, about a dozen journalists — mostly Post city staffers — patiently wait for election results.

“This is the night the media and the political parties — we’re all on the same team. We just want the numbers,” said Associate Editor Justin Thompson, a former city staffer, who is supervising the courthouse bureau.

Shortly before 9:30, Justin receives word from the newsroom that gubernatorial candiate Ken Blackwell conceded to Ted Strickland. “But no one here is covering that, so you all have to sit here,” he says comically.

They all appear to be in good spirits. A few of them leave to get provisions and return with pop, drinks and a magazine.

City writer Amanda Teuscher, a junior journalism/political science major in her first quarter at The Post, has her laptop out to compile some prereporting. She is covering one of the pivotal U.S. House races — the District 18 showdown between Joy Padgett and Zack Space (preview: Candidates share many similar goals for region). She shows me a lede with holes in it. It begins: “After (a campaign involving) (defending herself against) …”
“Isn’t that clever?” she laughs.

Once the results come in, she will call both of the candidates and probably ask the winner how he/she feels and what his/her next plans are, she says. It shouldn’t be hard to get a comment from the loser, because they are probably still willing to talk about their next move. “It’s not like they’ll fall off the face of the earth,” she says.

By 9:30 there are still no results. Justin heard that Cuyahoga County took an extra hour for results. Reporters from various media are popping in and out and hearing the news.

Meanwhile, one of the writers asks another writer if they would cheat on Reese Witherspoon, who also filed for a divorce from her longtime hubby Ryan Phillipe.

Shortly thereafter, Kantele shows up with a few pizzas as provisions for her reporters, and she and I sojourn back to base together.

9:59 p.m.:
Back in the newsroom, a cluster of copy editors, designers and staff editors await results as we munch on a plethora of pizza stacked in the corner.

Assistant Managing Editor Matt Burns is the lucky editor on duty tonight. Although he was part of our four-part editorial decision to endorse the Democratic candidate for attorney general, Marc Dann, his mother is employed with Betty Montgomery in Columbus (preview: Attorney general hopefuls focus on government reform). “I check every three minutes to see if my Mommy’s employer is winning or not,” he says.

A listing of Post endorsements, made by the majority opinion of the executive editors

10:10 p.m.:
Still awaiting numbers from Athens County ... Jimmy Buffet plays out of someone’s laptop and Matt Burns says, “I’m going to kill myself.”

Drinking his coffee from a little plastic cup (we should really invest in mugs), Matt Burns describes his strategy for the night before it turns to complete chaos: get most of the non-election pages done soon in order to focus on the late pages.

The courthouse crew has still not heard from candidates, but Brittany and Kantele are trying to find information online on the Secretary of State’s Web site.

Brittany has already posted two Democratic wins on the Web site: Ted Strickland for the governor race and Sherrod Brown for the U.S. Senate (preview: Race focuses on jobs, economy). Tonight marks the first time The Post has ever posted live election results. We have made an effort recently to post breaking stories online.

11:15 p.m.:
Kantele calls the Board of Elections to find out what the hold up is. The results are taking so long because of the excess number of provisional voters, they say.

In more important business, we need to have a one-minute dance party.

We are trying to predict results. Because Charlie Wilson is up by 30,000, we are calling it for him in for the Ohio House of Representatives (preview: 6th District candidates push for tax reform, job development). We can later verify the victory.

11:35 p.m.:
Kantele describes the result situation as “uncool.”

Despite the stress, we all manage to stay good-humored.

“And this is why I love The Post,” says Sarah McCoy, senior copy editor. “… Besides that whole news thing going on.”

11:49 p.m.:
Apparently they locked the Courthouse and our writers are still inside, waiting for results.

12:40 a.m.:
I’m considering running to the nearest bar and smoking a cigarette while I still can, but I’ll refrain. We heard that the smoking ban passed. Of course, many bars and restaurants are choosing the ban on their own, so it was inevitable (More area businesses become smoke free).

Meanwhile, other election results for Ohio races, including secretary of state (preview: Contenders trying to restore faith in Ohio election process), attorney general, state treasurer (preview: Trust, accountability key, treasurer contenders agree) and state auditor are in. I am working on pulling the stories and photos from the wire.

12:56 a.m.:
Groans reverberated in the packed newsroom when we received word that the Athens County Board of Elections is experiencing technical difficulties. The reporters first thought they were going to receive word around 9:30 p.m. Some reporters have trickled back to write their stories.

Matt Zapotosky, city senior writer, has a “no results” story ready to go for the Debbie Phillips and Jimmy Stewart race for the 92nd district Ohio House of Representatives seat — one of the races Athens is watching the most (preview: 92nd district hopefuls urge students to voice concerns). Matt Zapotosky spent the night at the Blue Gator waiting with Phillips for results. “I hung out with drunk Democrats all night,” he said.

We also have no results for county auditor, a hot race between incumbent Jill Thompson and what some have called a Democratic filler candidate, Pat Sikorski (preview: 2 vie for county auditor).

3:20 a.m.:
The dance party is over. We are still awaiting results. I am half asleep. We are now deciding whether we can print certain stories. Our absolute deadline is to go to print is 6:15 a.m.

“It’s very strange to be a member of the media and to feel utterly powerless,” said Matt Burns, before randomly breaking into a Shakespeare soliloquy.

4:32 a.m.:
We have to go to press without the numbers for Athens County. We plan on sending some pages to The Athens Messenger, where we publish, and will drive the remaining pages out later.

“We can hope against hope,” said Kantele, about getting last minute results.

6:20 a.m.:
After two hours that felt like a minute of all bodies at work copy editing, designing and writing, Matt Burns and I are ready to take the paper to The Messenger.

While the CD of pdf files is burning, a few of us think it would be funny to call our parents who are just getting up.

Overall, election night was a stressful success. Our paper doesn’t have Athens County results, but we were able to revamp it and make it look OK. What worked was the cooperation of the executive editors and Kantele as well as all of the designers, copy editors and reporters. As Justin said, "It’s the way Thanksgiving should be" — with a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

Wednesday’s full election coverage