I Noticed This Too...

..the fact that, on election night, the networks were not calling states for Bush when other states had been called with similar margins and less %precincts reporting. But I am glad to have confirmation from someone like Joe Trippi:

Throughout the day yesterday, Joe Trippi--no Republican--repeatedly expressed puzzlement at the networks' failure to call President Bush as the winner of various states. He would point out that Bush was farther ahead in some states, with more of the vote in and with the trend running toward the President, than other states that had already been called for Kerry.

Actually, even states that had few electoral votes were being called for Bush before other states that had more. My theory is that the networks were trying to keep the drama going so that people would continue to watch their coverage rather than go to bed. But I suspect that would not have been a factor if there had been a clear win for Kerry.

One particularly egregious example was that New Mexico was not called for Bush around 1:00 AM PST even when 103% of the precincts were in. Obviously there was some screw-up with the absentee precincts (this happens frequently) but it is hard to see how such a race could still be in doubt.