Virginia and NJ Returns

There are only two states with gubernatorial elections this year and both were somewhat decided before election day.

To get the New Jersey results, go to the NY Times page and if you want to discuss state assembly results, there is also a link there to that.

The nicest place to share with your students for Virginia is the VPAP.org site which has set up an electoral returns page.  The page is especially nice because you can easily look at a county by county map and if you click on the locality it will take you to a precinct page or you can go to the state site here.

If you want to see how much the candidates in VA raised then go to VPAP's money page here.

Here is a great site from the WashPost showing how VA has changed in the last four years. Even if your students are not from VA, it is a great way to discuss the elements that make a state Democratic or Republican.

When your students ask you how news sites can call elections, tell them there is only one exit pollster group in the country and it is Edison Research.  What that means is that when television stations call an election, they have to decide based on the exit polls and where the votes have come in from the polling locations.  Then the first channels to call the election do so on a leap of faith  (based on the returns of key precincts) as everyone is getting the same results at the same time.  Here are the exit polls taken by Edison in VA and here they are for New Jersey.