Column: The best way to watch election night coverage on TV? Don’t click away
TV networks are on the air in record numbers because of the presidential election this November, so there may never be a better time to watch election night coverage. However, sometimes those who watch election night coverage will be tempted to watch cable news, which is a very different experience.
While some might call that watching cable news, we’re calling it watching election night coverage. There are many aspects of the coverage that we want to watch, and there are some things we won’t watch to get all the best coverage.
Here are seven of the best things we want and will not be watching during the night.
1. Watching the live coverage
We want to watch the live coverage, because we’ll get to see the candidate’s faces and hear his/her words, but we won’t watch the live feeds of certain channels unless they’re reporting on the election.
2. Trying to track down a candidate in person
We want to see the faces of our candidates on the debate stage while we watch the debates. However, many are reporting that people in certain areas will not be able to vote, and many are going out of their way to make the effort to get into the polls for their candidate.
3. Finding out who won the debate
We want to watch the debate in the same moment that every other candidate has decided who they are going to debate. However, many will not be in the same room in the same moment, so we’ll just have to watch the debate.
4. Seeing each side of the candidates
We want to see the candidates on both sides as much as possible during the debate. However, we don’t want to see the Democratic and Republican nominees standing side by side for hours, because that’s really not the best experience for viewers.
5. Seeing what the candidates are going to do in November
We want to see what the candidates are going to do in November to fix our broken economy.
6. Making predictions for the elections
We want to see the candidates’ predicted election results for our state and county elections, but we will not be watching them all night like we did on January 7, 2002, when we watched the Bush vs. Gore debate on ABC.
7. Watching the exit polls
We do not want to watch the exit polls in real time during the election.
If you’re
