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Into the Carterverse
Election 84... and the morning after
Americans all around the country tuned in to watch election night unfold. Unlike 1980, this time there was actually some doubt over who would win.Election 84... and the morning after
CBS News
"CBS News Coverage of Campaign '84 Election Night continues!"
"This portion sponsored by SUN energy, 'Where there's SUN there's energy.
By AT&T we are reaching out in new directions!
And by General Motors, extra time and extra effort and attention to every detail, GM is committed to excellence"
"And now from CBS News headquarters in New York again is Dan Rather"
Dan Rather: "Good evening again. We're glad you're with us. Historic night tonight as we see who the united states has elected to be our president after Jimmy Carter. Our early assumptions from our CBS News-New York Times interviews with voters around the nation show that this is still on track to be anyone's night tonight."
"It's 7pm in the east now and there are two states already where most of the polls have closed, that is Indiana and Kentucky. We may want to keep an eye on Kentucky as it could show us which candidate may win depending on the results. At this time both states are too close to call. At this hour polls have just closed in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia. Of those 7 states we can project 2. We project that Georgia Goes for Walter Mondale , the presidents popularity would have helped him there as well as that New Hampshire goes for Jack Kemp, a reliably republican state for some time and this time is no different"
Election night chugged along at a reasonable pace"CBS News Coverage of Campaign '84 Election Night continues!"
"This portion sponsored by SUN energy, 'Where there's SUN there's energy.
By AT&T we are reaching out in new directions!
And by General Motors, extra time and extra effort and attention to every detail, GM is committed to excellence"
"And now from CBS News headquarters in New York again is Dan Rather"
Dan Rather: "Good evening again. We're glad you're with us. Historic night tonight as we see who the united states has elected to be our president after Jimmy Carter. Our early assumptions from our CBS News-New York Times interviews with voters around the nation show that this is still on track to be anyone's night tonight."
"It's 7pm in the east now and there are two states already where most of the polls have closed, that is Indiana and Kentucky. We may want to keep an eye on Kentucky as it could show us which candidate may win depending on the results. At this time both states are too close to call. At this hour polls have just closed in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia. Of those 7 states we can project 2. We project that Georgia Goes for Walter Mondale , the presidents popularity would have helped him there as well as that New Hampshire goes for Jack Kemp, a reliably republican state for some time and this time is no different"
"Indiana votes for Jack Kemp"
"Virginia goes to Jack Kemp"
"Florida tonight goes for Jack Kemp"
"South Carolina falls into the Kemp column"
"Kentucky goes for Walter Mondale"
"West Virginia is solidly in the Mondale colors tonight"
"As too is the District of Columbia"
"Massachusetts goes for Mondale"
"And for Mondale Pennsylvania votes tonight"
The mid-west voted mostly for Mondale, as Mondale was from the region he was the most appealing candidate, winning satisfactory amounts of farmers. The north-east was pretty split. Mondale managed to win New York which would've hurt Jack Kemp considering it was his Home State. While Mondale won Texas and Georgia, most of the south voted for Kemp. Jimmy carter had campaigned for Mondale down there but his relatively liberal ideas just didn't appeal as well as Carter. It is important to note, however, that no democrat had ever won the white house without Texas and when Mondale won it he must've felt relieved. Ohio would take a long time to be declared, No republican had ever won without it.
Finally, election night turned to the west. Everything was coming in as expected (Kemp won most of the states with Oregon and California sticking it out) when in a shock, despite having selected a broadly appealing California Mayor as his running mate California voted for Jack Kemp.
At the time Mondale was sitting on 234 electoral votes and because they expected to win California's 47 votes, camp Mondale was practically ready to declare victory. When it was clear that they had lost the state election night became much more tense.
For Kemp things started to become uneasy when thanks to bleedover from Appalachian support, Mondale won Ohio.
Rather: And with the polls closing in Alaska we can declare that Kemp has flipped the state and he will carry Alaska and it's 3 electoral votes tonight...
When viewers were presented with the electoral map there was this splodge of white that refused to be called for either side and at this point the whole election would come down to it...
Rather: After 6 hours of counting Mississippi and its 7 electoral votes are still too close to call, as you can see there in grey, or in white if you are watching in Black & White. Mondale in Red or Light Gray is leading with 268 electoral college votes and Kemp in Blue or Dark Gray is on 263. Folks we may be in the midst of a nail biter election
However, the state was extremely close in the count on election night. How close? The count at about 3am EST on election night was as follows
JACK KEMP: 460,196 votes (48.97%)
WALTER MONDALE: 460,155 votes (48.96%)
TOTAL VOTES: 939,816 (99.97% in)
Networks were unable to predict if the last 200 or so votes, mainly from Jackson, would be enough to let Mondale gain a lead over Jack Kemp. because of the time the ballot counters were allowed some rest just before Mississippi could finish its counting.WALTER MONDALE: 460,155 votes (48.96%)
TOTAL VOTES: 939,816 (99.97% in)
The networks were forced to finish their election night coverage with no clear winner, Both the Kemp and Mondale campaigns were calling for a recount due to the closeness of the state with both candidates accepting that there would not be a definitive result for at least a few more days as ballots were counted and recounted. It was really anyone's guess who would win.
The networks that night coined a phrase that would be repeated over the next few days "Mississippi, Mississippi, Mississippi..."
In the morning the nation was confronted with the reality that no-one had won the previous night.. an interesting few days were about to follow for election '84.
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