2016 Election Night

There has been talk that black turnout may be down in North Carolina. The preliminary exit polls suggest that may be the case. Only 21 percent of voters in North Carolina identified as black. That’s down slightly from 23 percent in 2012.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking this year about the visceral reactions that each candidate elicits from the American public — they were both historically disliked — so what’s struck me in the initial exit polls are what Americans said about their level of fear about the future, no matter who is elected. Preliminary exit polls suggest that 17 percent of voters are excited by the idea of Clinton as president and 29 percent are scared of it; only 13 percent of voters are excited about Trump as president, while 37 percent said that idea scared them.

Colorado’s statewide voter database apparently broke down for about 20 minutes this afternoon. This rendered voters unable to cast ballots during that time period, although people who’d previously filled out their mail-in ballots could drop them off. Voters could also drop off provisional ballots during that time. According to the secretary of state’s office, the system is working again now.