What a supremely memorable day
I started out Election Day still awake from the night before, aiming to vote early and quickly at 6 a.m. Unfortunately, since I wasn't the only one with that idea and a poll official for my precinct overslept, I instead embarked on a two-hour voting odyssey.
After I had voted, I went and picked up a copy of Tuesday's State Press, which sported the paper's look from 1958 since we were marking the 50th anniversary of a '58 vote that changed the name of what was then Arizona State College to ASU. I think the front looks so incredibly cool, and apparently it was much talked about on campus today as well.
Interestingly, the Arizona Daily Wildcat also marked the anniversary with a story that took a dramatically different tack than ours.
But of course, the election provided most of the day's memorable experiences — overseeing a newsroom's election coverage, taking some shifts manning a breaking-news Twitter feed and watching the election of the nation's first black president.
The moment itself was so much earlier than I expected. Just before 9 p.m., we had the sound up on the middle of our three newsroom TVs, which was tuned to the live election broadcast from Cronkite NewsWatch. Gov. Janet Napolitano was talking to a NewsWatch reporter from the Democratic watch party in Phoenix when, all of a sudden, the crowd behind her erupted into cheers. A split second later, I saw on the TV to the right that CNN had called the race for Obama. After another second or two, on the TV on the right, ABC put up a full-frame picture of Obama and labeled him "president-elect." A quick check of other channels revealed that the projection had been made at roughly the same time on all major television network.
I was not only surprised that the projection came so early but also that it came so simultaneously.
Also exciting and surprising was getting word that our reporters and columnists made it out to the lawn at the Arizona Biltmore and would see John McCain's concession speech in person. (The campaign had planned to let only a limited number of media folks into the area, and in fact our photographer was barred from moving outside where McCain gave his speech.)
Speaking of The State Press' election coverage, we missed deadlines and spent too long putting Wednesday's paper together, but despite the lateness, I'm incredibly proud of the product we're putting out. The photos and design are appealing, and the stories from our reporters who were out in the field tonight are really compelling.
So if you'll be on an ASU campus Wednesday, pick up The State Press in print, and also check out our coverage on asuwebdevil.com, which is looking great this morning:
