This is exciting stuff, next only to a British General Election from my point of view! It's 7 pm just now on this side of the Atlantic. So, I assume its something like 11 am in CA and 2 pm in NY. At what time do your polling stations close?

Most polling places close at 7 or 8PM, but sometimes they keep them open longer if the lines are long. They want to make sure that everyone can vote.

A couple of comments on the discussions above:

The electoral college system made more sense in the past when it was hard to count zillions of ballots. You could count ballots for a state and then the electors for that state would go and vote in the electoral college. I have never heard of an outcome of the election changing because an elector changed his or her mind. The electoral college system, as someone has already said, favors sparsely populated states. The system ensures that candidates will spend time campaigning in states with low populations, and pay attention to the whole country, not just to the big cities.

Having said this, I am in favor of making presidential elections a simple popular vote. I have had enough of this silly electoral college system, and I have had enough of the devastation caused by these past 8 years.

Regarding voting on Tuesday, there is a historical reason for this. It's because travel was not easy in days past, and most people were farmers. Sunday was for going to church. Monday was for travelling to your polling place. Tuesday was for voting, then you'd travel home Tuesday or Wednesday, and you could begin work again on Wednesday or Thursday, on your farm. Most Americans aren't farmers anymore and most Americans aren't spending all day Sunday in church, so in my opinion, it would be good to change the election day. Tuesdays used to be convenient, and now they aren't anymore.

But this is already becoming a moot point, because many states are allowing early voting, in the two weeks or so leading up to the official election day. I live in Maryland, and this year, there was a proposal on our ballot to change the state constitution to permit early voting. We'll see if it goes through! But Maryland also permits voting by absentee ballot, so if you can't be there to vote on election day for some reason, you can mail in your vote. I mailed in my vote this year, I had to go on a sudden business trip and wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it to my polling place. And I wanted to make sure that my voice was heard, because I am ready for some major change.

Miland:At what time do your polling stations close?

It varies according to local law and of course local time zone. I think the most common set up is that if you aren't already there waiting in line by 7pm local time, you get turned away, but the poll will stay open long enough to let everyone who was already there by seven vote. In some places polls will start to turn people away at 8, or 7:30, or whatever.

In the tiny town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the polls are already closed and the votes counted. This tiny village is famous (well, kinda famous) for having all of its residents (all 21 of them) vote right after midnight and then closing the poll, thus getting their votes officially announced first. And for the first time in 40 years Dixville Notch is supporting a Democrat for President...

andrew.longhofer:I agree wholeheartedly on all counts here. I'm a first-time voter, and I'm taking my opportunity to support a candidate who shares my views, rather than settling on one who is less disappointing than the other.

I have really mixed feelings on this. I understand the draw of voting for someone who really excites you and with whom you feel you can agree.

But I think that sometimes it's better to go with someone who isn't your favorite, than to split the vote of half of the political spectrum, and end up with someone even worse.

I still feel resentful about the people who voted for Nader, causing Gore to lose. Gore wasn't the best presidential candidate ever, but I think our last 8 years would have been so much better if he had been president instead of Bush. I think about these past 8 years and it makes me want to cry.

erinja:I still feel resentful about the people who voted for Nader, causing Gore to lose.

Nader-voters didn't cause Gore to lose. A poll of Nader voters right after the election indicated that most would not have voted for Gore under any circumstance. I don't have a source for that as it was a number of years ago, but I remember well that Gore at the time was hated by the far left. Of course things look different now in retrospect, but at the time the Green Party had nothing but contempt for the "Demopublicans" and their "nearly identical" candidates.

This was long before Gore re-invented himself as an environmentalist and liberal. In the 2000 election he was distancing himself from Clinton as much as possible by moving to the right.

Thanks Lee for the link, i read the whole page about both Obama and Mcann. I apologize if it sounded like i was endorsing a candidate over another, my objective was for people to research more before they voted (and not to just get your info from one source, like a party funded news program (both republican and democratic). So those who are Pro life should know who to vote for, and those who are Pro Choice know who to vote for! I'd like to add,... that no mater who wins the election, most people can be happy that Bush is finally out the door!

Senlando:...most people can be happy that Bush is finally out the door!

Agreed.

Obama has just won Pennsylvania which looks hopeful.

I've heard this story tossed around today. I haven't verified the facts, but until proven otherwise, it's nifty.

It seems the NFL is an electoral Punxsutawney Phil. If the Washington Redskins lose their last game before Election Day, the incumbent party in the White House is ousted. The Redskins moved to D.C. in 1937, and since then, 16 of the 17 elections have followed this pattern.

Of course, the sole exception was the the 2004 presidential election.

Obama's just taken Ohio, which looks even more hopeful.