[EL] CNN releases initial returns before polls close

[Rob Richie]

It's remarkable how many states have to deal with these time zone  issues.
The Green Papers site has a helpful guide to these states and their rules.
Some close all polls at the same time across all time zones, meaning that
the polling day ends an hour earlier in local time in the western parts of
their state than in the eastern parts. Others have a consistent local
polling time, but of course this creates the problem of results and exit
polls being released while voters in the west are still voting. See Green
Papers' page here
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G16/closing.phtml?format=gc#SD-n

Fun fact: the Americans who voted first on Election Day were done by 5 am
this morning: Guam and the Northern Marianas. Puerto Rico was done by 4 pm,
and the Virgin Islands by 6 pm. Millions of American citizens in these
territories, but none can vote in the presidential race.

Meanwhile, American Samoa, on the other side of the dateline, closes its
polls at midnight eastern time.



On Tue, Nov 8, 2016 at 7:50 PM, Mark Scarberry <
mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu> wrote:

> What very much surprises me is release of returns from a state before
> *that state's* polls close.
>
> Mark Scarberry
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2016 at 4:45 PM -0800, "Larry Levine" <
> larrylevine at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Ohio Secty of State just said he plans to release an early result in about
>> 15 minutes based on count of early voting ballots. We may be back to the
>> days when the race was decided before the polls close in the west.
>>
>> Larry
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:
>> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] *On Behalf Of *Mark
>> Scarberry
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 08, 2016 4:21 PM
>> *To:* Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>; Rick Hasen <
>> rhasen at law.uci.edu>
>> *Subject:* [EL] CNN releases initial returns before polls close
>>
>>
>>
>> Florida, NH, at least one other state. I thought states were very careful
>> not to release such returns. These aren't exit polls, I think, so this
>> appears to be the responsibility of election officials.
>>
>>
>>
>> Also, in one state a court ordered polls to be kept open beyond closing
>> time due to computer glitches. Should that remedy have been applied
>> statewide; I don't see how a court could calibrate a precise remedy in
>> terms of number of minutes extra.
>>
>>
>>
>> Mark Scarberry
>>
>
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>



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