Professors offer thoughts on presidential election

By REBECCA MARTIN

As the election between Sen. John Kerry and President George Bush remained up in the air late Tuesday night, two professors at Fresno State said a winner would likely not be called before this morning.

To gain the presidency, the winning candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win. With the popular and electoral votes too close to call between Kerry and Bush as of press time Tuesday night, results may not be official for a few days.

“ I don’t know if we’ll know before we go to bed tonight. An official count might not come for another day or so,” communications professor Diane Blair said Tuesday night.

An hour after the polls closed in California, Political Science professor Kurt Cline agreed.

Mass communication and journalism professor Gary Rice remained optimistic that results may be known by the end of Tuesday night.

“I went in today thinking that by the time I went to sleep tonight I’d know who won, and I still think that at this point,” Rice said.

While official results may not be known on election night, projections of who may win could be called Tuesday night.

“I do think it will happen tonight,” Cline said on Tuesday evening. “I think there’s enough big states in play that they’ll be able to project a winner.”

Media coverage of the election has been different this year than in past years, with networks seeming to be more hesitant to call a state either way, according to the Fresno State professors.

“It seems to be a little more restrained this time out,” Rice said. “They seem to be a little more thoughtful.

They don’t seem to be as competitive.”

“I think they’re going to wait a long time to call states, at least this election. But you never know, they might get excited,” Cline said.

Experts at different TV networks are being more cautious this year when calling each state, with projections not as common as they were in the last election.

“They’re qualifying their projections, and making sure people understand these are projections, and not actual results,” Blair said.

With the election remaining close on election night, experts may be hesitant to call states for either candidate. People will have to wait and watch to see who wins.

“The race keeps getting tighter every time I check the computer,” Rice said. The partial returns don’t do much for me. I’m just going to sit here and watch the map,” Rice said, referring to the map on www.cnn.com showing electoral votes.

The winner between Bush and Kerry may rely on a few, too-close-to-call, states.

“We’ll have to see what happens in Ohio probably,” Rice said an hour after polls on the West Coast closed.

Another concern from the past presidential election was the difference between the electoral college vote and the popular vote.

“I think this year the popular vote and the electoral vote will probably be the same,” Cline said. “But if Kerry wins, I don’t think he’ll have the popular vote.”