On election evening, returns are counted and processed by the local election authorities and reported to the county and state election authorities as they are delivered from the polls once the poll closes.

When watching election returns, we can watch for trends on many levels, including:

• individual races
• positions (e.g., House, Senate)
• party affiliation
• locality

By creating matrixes, we can determine who is winning and where the control is shifting, either to an individual or to a Party.

For example, if we watch all governor races, we create a matrix that contains the current individual, the party affiliation, and the state name.

Then run the totals before and after:

Then, browse all the state and local election authority websites for the data as it's returned. This is where the media get their data. Sometimes, the authorities become overwhelmed and can only release to the media at the moment, but many are placing details on their websites as the only source.

Where to look

• County Clerk
• Secretary of State

Many states have offices with different titles.

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