Early returns have Romney in the lead, panic time?

Take a breath. I don’t expect a final decision on who won until Wednesday night.
They have a lot of mail-in ballots to go through.

No, it is not time to panic, because so far all of these results are exactly as predicted.

Early returns show Romney probably won Kentucky and South Carolina.

That’s as surprising as Obama winning Illinois.

The results come back according to time zones (east to west). Several of the big Obama states are on the west coast and are always the last to come in. The states that have gone for Romney are no surprise as they are typical Bible belt conservative states. No worries!

I totally agree. Panic away. Panic as hard as you can! It’s good for you. Gets the heart racing. Exercise that adrenaline. Get you motivated to move to Canada.

Well, I don’t know. But unless you have some pipeline to the future, as far as I know, they number of precincts reporting hasn’t hit more than 40% in any of the swing states. If you’re going to panic on that basis, you need some beta blockers.

But of course, you’re just being silly. Bravo!

Can’t wait to laugh my butt off during the concession speech. Still I’m already pacing and refreshing the early results page… quick need a distraction.. besides cleaning!

Most of Romney’s support is in the Eastern and Central time zones, so of course he will have an early lead. Once California polls hit closing time, things will likely be different. Just the three states on the Pacific coast (last polls to close in the 48) have 74 electoral votes, which is more than most of the Central US combined. Either way, most of the electoral votes are in the coastal time zones, with the notable exception of Texas, which is pretty much a lock for Republicans no matter who is running. And, predictably, the old Confedaracy is going to have different views than the Northeast, so that time zone is going to be split in a way that makes early results a poor indicator of the eventual results unless it’s a total landslid.

Interestingly, Dixville Notch, NH, tied with 5 votes each for Romney and Obama. If you don’t know the significance of this, you might want to do a little studying of election history ;) That has me slightly concerned.