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Elections

Election spurs record traffic to news sites

Intense interest in the outcome of the U.S. presidential election helped drive record traffic to news sites, according to Akamai Technologies.

At 8 p.m. PST, just as word was coming that Barack Obama had won the election, Akamai's Net Usage Index showed more than 8.5 million worldwide visitors per minute to the company's aggregate set of news sites. Not all of the traffic, of course, may have been specifically to election coverage, but the relative audience size in the index does correlate strongly to particular events.

Tuesday night's total was a big jump from … Read more

An Obama presidency: Good, bad news for technology

When Barack Obama becomes president in January with a strongly Democratic Congress, he'll have the chance to push a technology policy that relies more on government subsidy and regulation than that of his immediate predecessor.

In Washington and Silicon Valley circles, betting has already begun on who will be the nation's first "chief technology officer." Could it be Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who conveniently endorsed Obama? Or Vint Cerf? If there's an opening for a Beltway type, perhaps ex-regulator Reed Hundt, who's been a proxy for the president-elect?

Obama wants the CTO to "… Read more

Bloggers get feisty in the wait for election results

While Election Day involves a good deal of waiting for results, bloggers won't be kept silent until the polls close.

Partisan Web sites on the left and the right kept busy on Tuesday documenting and rebuffing allegations of intimidation tactics, saying one last goodbye to President Bush, and throwing mud at each other.

Stories of supposed Black Panthers watching over precincts in Philadelphia at Democrat Barack Obama's behest flooded right-leaning Web sites and blogs on Tuesday. Pundit Michelle Malkin has footage on her Web site from a University of Pennsylvania student approaching a precinct where two men are … Read more

CBS live Webcast: Election results

With Tuesday afternoon upon us and what could be record numbers of voters lining up to cast their ballots, it won't be long now before the Election 2008 campaigns are history, and the United States has a new president-elect.

Our colleagues at CBS News will be providing full-bore coverage, updated every 60 seconds, throughout the evening as the Electoral College results start adding up. In addition, Katie Couric and the CBS News Political Team will deliver live, exclusive Web coverage, including a Web-only show after the network reporting ends.

As during the presidential debates, you're encouraged to submit … Read more

Following e-voting glitches

In any election, voting problems are bound to crop up--whether it's miscalibrated electronic machines or a lack of pencils to fill out paper ballots.

In such a highly anticipated election, the sheer number of people expected to vote Tuesday will likely add to the problems. CNET News will be keeping track of e-voting glitches and problems as they arise. Refresh for updates throughout the day (all times in PST, unless noted otherwise).

2:20 p.m.: "The misinformation is flying fast and furious" about voting problems in Florida, said Jennifer Davis, communications director for the Florida Secretary … Read more

President Obama? Web sites bet it's a done deal

After the votes were tallied on Election Day four years ago, the big winners turned out to be the betting Web sites that predicted George W. Bush's re-election.

U.K.-based Betfair correctly predicted that Bush would stay in office and gave him 2-to-1 odds of beating his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry. The odds at Dublin-based Tradesports.com were similarly accurate, giving Bush a 58 percent chance to win and Kerry a 42 percent chance.

This year, the predictions are far more dramatic. Betfair's national election chart puts the probability of a President Barack Obama at 94 percentRead more

Where to get Election Day results

What feels like the longest and most tiring election in American history, and certainly ranks as the most expensive by far, is not quite over.

If you're like many of us here at CNET News, you'll be watching the results stream in both on television and on the Internet. To help you out, we've compiled the following list of places to stop for results, news, and opinion on Election Day:

• Google's 2008 Election Map is one of a series of mashups and provides what will be real-time results, unfettered by opinion or commentary. Visitors can … Read more

Technology Voter Guide 2008: Cynthia McKinney

(Editor's note: We sent our survey questions to John Judge, Cynthia McKinney's press secretary, on August 21. We extended our deadline multiple times, and wrote to Judge last Thursday saying it was "too late" to make the deadline for the voter's guide, which we published at noon on Friday. After it was published, we finally received the below replies. A side note: The last question asked McKinney what her favorite tech gadget was, but she didn't answer the question, and Judge did not respond when we asked for a clarification.)

In the last few … Read more

Election Day problems: Share what you see

For many Americans, the trip to the voting booth Tuesday will be unremarkable in certain respects--put the check mark next to the favored candidate's name, put the ballot in the ballot box, and be done with it.

For others, however, the experience will be fraught with some sort of frustration, from faulty voting machines to interminable waits and other inconveniences.

If you fall into the latter group, our colleagues at CBS News Investigates want to hear from you. Document the irregularities or other problems you encounter with your cell phone camera, Flip videocam, or other device, and then upload … Read more

More evidence cell phone users affect polls

The latest political polling numbers suggest that poll results sway in favor of one candidate or another depending on whether a pollster calls likely voters on cell phones, Nate Silver pointed out on FiveThirtyEight.com on Sunday.

Silver's analysis shows that out of 14 polling organizations, the five that call likely voters' cell phones (shown in gold in the accompanying chart) put Democrat Barack Obama ahead of Republican John McCain by an average of 9.4 points. By contrast, the eight pollsters that do not call cell phones have Obama ahead by 5.1 points.

The data mirrors studies … Read more