FT Alphaville’s perennially underslept reporters Sam Jones and Stacy-Marie Ishmael will provide running commentary on the 2008 Race to the White House, the outcome of which will be decided today. Please email interesting election-related links, videos and tips to alphaville@ft.com. And yes, we already have all of the Tina Fey-as-Sarah Palin sketches, but thank you anyway.
Barack Obama trounced John McCain 15-6 in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where the first votes of the 2008 US presidential election were cast and counted – in the middle of the night.
Yep – 15 votes to 6, a turnout which represented 100 per cent of the eligible voting population. (Dixville is a tiny village with a total population of just 75 according to Wikipedia).
Independent Ralph Nader was also on the ballot, but received no votes. Obama’s victory in Dixville is the first for a Democrat candidate since since 1968.
In Hart’s Location, another similarly small town, Obama won 17 votes, McCain 10, and Ron Paul 2, again with 100 per cent voter turnout.
Related links:
US economy, the dollar and the electoral prediction markets (video) – John Authers / Short View
Elections 2008 – FT.com special package
Is Dixville Notch predictive? In a word, no – FiveThiryEight
Article Series - US Elections 08
- First blood to Obama
- "We are not sure if an election result has ever mattered so little to the markets."
- Why you should ignore exit polls
- Market talking heads: election means nada, redux
- Intrade odds favour Obama (shock)
- Pink Picks, White House edition
- Obama, the markets and the perils of presidential data mining
- Further reading, White House edition
- Presidential data mining, redux
- Gideon Rachman doesn't give a twit
- Dirty dirty exit poll data, round one
- McCain gets Kentucky and South Carolina, Obama claims Vermont
- Obama vs McCain - how the networks see it
- 270, 538, swing states, electoral college - what does it all mean?
- Obama wins Ohio, White House in sight
- As Obama sweeps Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico...
- Electoral vote tally - Obama 207, McCain 129
- Barack Obama wins Virginia, California - and the White House