Election night in the US

Back on October 13th, FiveThirtyEight.com projected that Obama would win the presidential election by 351 electoral college votes to McCain’s 187. Their final projection, based on yesterday’s polls, was Obama 349, McCain 189.

Tonight, we get to see how good their projections really were (provided the election doesn’t degenerate into another drawn-out legal fiasco, that is).

[Update: 2:10am] The victory was decisive and exceptional. It cannot help but make a person more optimistic about our collective future.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. Between 2005 and 2007 I completed an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. I worked for five years for the Canadian federal government, including completing the Accelerated Economist Training Program, and then completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2023.

3 thoughts on “Election night in the US”

  2. At this point, it looks likely that both FiveThirtyEight projections underestimated the Obama margin of victory. If he wins in North Carolina, his final figure will be 364 electoral college votes.

  3. Previous winning results:

    Bush (2004): 286
    Bush (2000): 271
    Clinton (1996): 379
    Clinton (1992): 370
    Bush Sr. (1988): 426
    Reagan (1984): 525
    Reagan (1980): 489
    Carter (1976): 297
    Nixon (1972): 520
    Nixon (1968): 301
    LBJ (1964): 486
    Kennedy (1960): 303

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