AMERICA DIVIDES: The Multi-Party US Election of 2016

[Thande]

	NJ-06		
	Nat          	101,037   	34.9%
	Lib          	98,184    	33.9%
	Prog          	64,673    	22.3%
	Fus          	16,642    	5.7%
	All          	9,111     	3.1%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	289,648
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Prog

"That's another result from New Jersey with the Nationals topping the polls, albeit not by a big margin, and again it's in a district that was considered fairly secure Democratic territory under the old system. Just what is going on?"

"Thank you for that obvious segue dialogue, Jeremy. We can now go to Matt Frei in New Jersey. Matt?"

The familiar face of Matt Frei, bags under his eyes, appeared on the screen. Oddly, the edges of the screen seemed to show a moonlit ocean, while the middle part was a slightly lighter, twilit city scene that occasionally flickered green. "Yes, Andrew, we can report here from the shores of ah...Jersey that there is a political upheaval taking place. This is a place that has long been known for opaque, feudal government and a suspicion of partisan politics, yet now a revolution is sweeping through the Bai - the state."

Frei coughed uncomfortably. "We talked to some famous sons of Jersey to get their views. Firstly, it's one of the world's biggest, haha, actors, it's Danny DeVito. Mr DeVito, what do you make of all this?"

Danny DeVito strangely resembled a much taller man on his knees wearing a Danny DeVito mask. "In this new voting system, Matt, there's no winning, only degrees of losing. Let me tell you, I support Bernie Sanders and the Progressives, it says here, and totally not just because I look a bit like him. Don't ask who I supported in the Irish presidential election, is all I'm saying. But this is all coming way too fast. Speed isn't everything--"

There was a twang of elastic snapping and the mask briefly fell away to reveal a face that looked more like Tom Selleck's, if anything, but the camera was hastily jerked aside to shift him off-camera. This did come with the unusual side effect that now there was an extra moon in the sky around the edge of the screen to go with the one near the centre.

"Thank you Mr DeVito," Frei said loudly. "And what about your fellow Hollywood actor, Bruce Willis? Although technically he was born in West Germany."

The camera jerked again to reveal another man behind a very static image of Bruce Willis' face, which also appeared to date from 1988 and still came with hair. "Ja! Actually, it's pronounced 'die Hard', you know. Let me tell you, Matt, I'm for small government, this new voting system gives us hundreds and hundreds of MCs, that's way too many, but it would make a nice photograph. Um, yipey kee yay, mother...what does this say?"

"Thank you Mr Willis...and finally, because we only care about talking to actors, it's James Gandolfini, the man behind Tony Soprano--"

"I think you mean what's clearly a woman behind that upside-down mask of James Gandolfini," Andrew Neil interrupted.

"Oh come on Andrew, don't go all JK Rowling on me," Frei said, smiling nervously, as the mask slipped down.

"Wait - that's singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot!"

"At least I can sing soprano, that's close enough, right?" Pallot asked defensively. The camera swung aside with another green flicker, but this only served to reveal the other two interviewees sans masks.

"Graeme Le Saux? Nigel Mansell?" Jeremy Vine asked in confusion.

Neil's eyes narrowed. "Matt, did you misread the memo and go to old Jersey, then panic and decide to fake being in New Jersey with a green-screen and some co-opted locals?"

Frei's face twisted into distorted rage. "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"

The screen turned to static.

	FL-12		
	Nat          	109,810   	28.9%
	Lib          	89,401    	23.5%
	Con          	66,791    	17.6%
	Prog          	58,358    	15.3%
	Cst          	41,886    	11%
	All          	14,111    	3.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	380,357
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"Funny old world, isn't it...anyway, another seat for the Conservatives, just about, in another part of Florida nobody's heard of."

	GA-03		
	Nat          	78,897    	25.3%
	Lib          	73,721    	23.6%
	Con          	70,826    	22.7%
	Cst          	50,900    	16.3%
	Prog          	28,434    	9.1%
	All          	9,085     	2.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	311,865
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"And a pretty much identical result, actually, in this Georgia district south-west of Atlanta. So not even a Florida home state effect. It's almost as if Marco Rubio's even more irrelevant than we already thought."

"Alright, alright...anyway, I'm sure Governor Saakashvili will receive this with er...good or bad news...er, just which is he a member of, anyway?"

"I'm not sure even he knows."

	VA-09		
	Nat          	110,873   	35%
	Con          	62,573    	19.8%
	Lib          	45,077    	14.2%
	Cst          	44,391    	14%
	Prog          	41,386    	13.1%
	All          	12,440    	3.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	316,740
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Con
			Nat

"A very right-wing district in the west of Virginia - as opposed to West Virginia - but it neighbours that state, and it's in the Appalachian mountains. Again a correlation with support for the Nationals.

"Perhaps driven by Mr Trump's protectionist policies that he claims to have."

"Er, well, that's the final result in Virginia, which means we can also give the top-up statewide seats for the state, which as a reminder are winner-take all..."

	Virginia at-large		
	Lib          	1,278,478 	32.4%
	Con          	753,749   	19.1%
	Prog          	702,995   	17.8%
	Nat          	687,649   	17.4%
	Cst          	328,045   	8.3%
	All          	199,966   	5.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	3,950,882
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"And a pretty decisive win for the Liberals here, reflecting that strong vote we saw in the 'NoVa' northern suburbs of DC, but also other parts of the east of the state."



"As you can see in our final map, though, the western part does bleed into the dominating support for the Nationals in West Virginia."

"Take me home, country roads..."

"Yes yes, please stop or the contact ID demons will kill us."

"Oh, I always thought they were on our side."

	KY-04		
	Con          	78,906    	23.4%
	Cst          	73,671    	21.9%
	Nat          	67,172    	19.9%
	Lib          	49,455    	14.7%
	Prog          	49,208    	14.6%
	All          	18,736    	5.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	337,149
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Cst
			Nat

"And another very right-wing district crossing into the Appalachians, this one in Kentucky, just over the river from Cincinnati in Ohio. All three seats going to the right-wing parties, and again there's some more success for the Conservatives, as we've seen in other parts of the state."

	NJ-04		
	Nat          	167,508   	47%
	Lib          	87,320    	24.5%
	Prog          	58,871    	16.5%
	Fus          	31,351    	8.8%
	All          	11,533    	3.2%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	356,583
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Nat

"That's the last New Jersey district, from the middle part of the state, and again a whopping vote for the Nationals."

"I wish we could find out why that was, and if SOMEONE could follow basic instructions and not fly to Newfoundland when he sees a cheap flight to Sydney, we might. Oh well. What about the statewide seats?"

	New Jersey at-large		
	Lib          	1,363,138 	35.2%
	Nat          	1,293,437 	33.4%
	Prog          	785,140   	20.3%
	Fus          	308,496   	8%
	All          	123,835   	3.2%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	3,874,046
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"Well, despite everything we've said about the Nationals, the Liberals came out on top and get the statewide seats - but only just. Questions are going to be asked about this, indeed. If this pattern is repeated nationwide, it could be a significant bonus for the blues."

"Yes. In fact, it makes one wonder what the result would look like if the vote was purely first-past-the-post and we were only counting the first seat in each district."

"What a wonderful rhetorical question, Andrew. Well, to answer it, we can now go over to overrated TV historian and silver medallist in the arts nepotism stakes - just lost out to Jack Whitehall in the pole vault - Dan Snow..."

"It's just a bit of fun."

 

[Thande]

The screen shifted to display the aforementioned legacy TV personality and alleged sex symbol to the shirt-lifting community, Dan Snow. In the background, albeit probably on a greenscreen slightly more sophisticated than Matt Frei's, was what looked like a large hill in Wiltshire with the remains of some ruins on top. "Yes thank you Andrew. Well, I have been called in to honour my dad Peter by playing with the results under different voting systems and like. It's just a bit of fun."

"And also because Jeremy needed to go to the toilet. Well, ah, Dan, what would the results we've had look like if they were pure first-past-the-post, i.e., if there was only one seat in each district still?"

"Well, Andrew, you can see here that many of the districts we've seen would be 'won'," Snow made air quotes, "with only twenty-five or so percent of the vote, which I imagine would be a serious concern to many."

"Actually that happens in council elections at home all the time and nobody notices, but go on."

"Right...but if we ignore that and just award one seat per district to the top party..." The US map behind Snow shifted until it was just a sea of solid colours for each district. Of course, the results were only shown for the eastern seaboard and a little inland, with a few holes of black where results had not yet come in, and then gradually petered out going westward as only a few districts in the interior states had reported.

"Currently just over a third of districts have reported, about thirty-seven percent I think. Now, we'll give each district one seat for the top party...and we'll also give one statewide seat for the top party per state..." Snow's voice dropped to a mutter, "because I can't figure out how to stop the spreadsheet counting those..."

"You know nothing, Dan Snow."

"Curse you and your topical references, Andrew Neil. Very well, if we count those seats, we'd get..." the numbers appeared behind Snow. "One hundred and seventy-two seats would be declared - in reality, you understand, five hundred and four have declared because there's more than one per district..."

"Yes yes, get on with it."

"Right...so the Liberals would have eighty-six seats, the Nationals would have fifty-eight, the Progressives would have seventeen, then nine for the Conservatives, one for the Constitution Party and another for the Con-Con Fusionists, and none for the Alliance."

"So the Liberals alone would have a majority?"

"Not quite, as they'd have exactly half the seats, but pretty close to. Off the back of just uh...thirty percent of the vote. About twenty-one million votes for them cast so far, out of seventy million total. Uh, again, if you count the completed states' total votes twice because of the extra seats..."

"Not very proportional then!"

"No indeed. Well, many would say even the real system isn't that proportional due to only having three seats per district, but it does ensure at least a good number of those wasted votes...aren't."

"Very well. Very interesting...Dan. But where are you, anyway?"

"Me?" Snow jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "I'm at Old Sarum, an uninhabited hill that formerly had two MPs, also known by its Welsh name of Caer Caradog. It was either that or Stonehenge, and Stonehenge is overrated." Without warning, he disappeared.

"Dammit, he's right," Neil muttered to himself. "Now I will have to revise my opinion of him. I hate doing that. Oh well."

	PA-05		
	Nat          	117,120   	37.3%
	Fus          	78,617    	25%
	Prog          	54,904    	17.5%
	Lib          	50,234    	16%
	All          	13,269    	4.2%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	314,144
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Nat

"Right, well, anyway, Pennsylvania looks increasingly complete now, and another win for the Fusionists in this right-wing district - of course, under Dan Snow's voting system they'd still only have one, as they've only topped the polls in a single district thus far. This one's a large and rural area that stretches from the Appalachians to Lake Erie."

	NC-12		
	Lib          	148,894   	41.8%
	Prog          	94,841    	26.6%
	Con          	37,430    	10.5%
	Nat          	32,978    	9.3%
	Cst          	30,753    	8.6%
	All          	11,425    	3.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	356,321
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"North Carolina's final district, on the other hand, is decidedly a left-wing one, taking in most of the city of Charlotte - named after George III's wife, they apparently forgot to change it - with its BAME majority."

"And with that, we can give the final statewide top-up seats for North Carolina as well..."

	North Carolina at-large		
	Lib          	1,255,389 	26.8%
	Nat          	971,088   	20.7%
	Prog          	933,922   	19.9%
	Cst          	876,604   	18.7%
	Con          	514,960   	11%
	All          	130,135   	2.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	4,682,098
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"With only about a quarter of the vote, indeed, as Dan Snow said, the Liberals secure the statewide seats."

"For the last few presidential elections, North Carolina was a swing seat. Here, the greater divisions on the right compared to the left seem to have helped the latter gain ascendance. And the map of the Carolinas is now complete."



"Yes, both North and South Carolina have the Liberals in first place overall, despite the fact that both these states voted for Mitt Romney in the final US presidential election. I suspect that won't be the last surprise we see tonight."

	IN-04		
	Nat          	100,995   	33.4%
	Fus          	93,413    	30.9%
	Prog          	53,069    	17.6%
	Lib          	38,200    	12.6%
	All          	16,704    	5.5%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	302,381
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Prog

"Indiana is also usually regarded as a right-wing state, and more than sixty percent of the vote goes to the right here, but the Progressives just narrowly grab the third seat from the Nationals."

"Yes - what's interesting is that Indiana did vote for President Obama in 2008, which was a surprise at the time, and has since trended away from Democrats except in urban areas. But while the Liberals have inherited that vote, the Progressives seem to have gained support in the more rural areas. I wonder if that's a pattern we'll see repeated."

	PA-08		
	Nat          	105,632   	27.3%
	Lib          	103,845   	26.8%
	Prog          	81,840    	21.1%
	Fus          	80,975    	20.9%
	All          	14,733    	3.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	387,025
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Prog

"We'll soon start seeing some new states' results as the polls close, but for now we continue with Pennsylvania...now this was formerly a Republican-held seat under the old system, but here, though the Nationals are in the lead, two out of the three seats go to the left parties."

"Which is because the Progressives narrowly beat the Fusionists. As we were saying, some people will bemoan this system as insufficiently proportional, but others would argue that it retains some of the thrill and high stakes of a first-past-the-post contest - it's just that in this case, the race is between third and fourth place."

	FL-26		
	Lib          	113,971   	39.4%
	Con          	75,388    	26.1%
	Prog          	50,281    	17.4%
	Nat          	30,782    	10.6%
	Cst          	11,035    	3.8%
	All          	7,768     	2.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	289,225
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Con
			Lib

"This is a district right down at the southern tip of Florida, with the Keys trickling away from the tip of th...you know what, let's move on. It was pretty much a dead heat between Democrats and Republicans before, but here the Liberals get two of the seats and the Conservatives only one."

	NY-15		
	Lib          	128,459   	67.1%
	Prog          	50,995    	26.6%
	Nat          	5,590     	2.9%
	Fus          	3,781     	2%
	All          	2,558     	1.3%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	191,383
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"And speaking of finishing states, that's the last New York declaration. This one is in the north of the city, taking in part of the Bronx and Westchester County or whatever Marvel have retconned it to be called this week, and was a very heavily Democratic district under the old system. The Liberals weren't far off getting all three seats, but the Progressives nab the third - and the right-wing parties are nowhere in contention, barely ahead of the Alliance."

"With all the New York votes in, the statewide top-ups..."

	New York at-large		
	Lib          	2,635,284 	34.4%
	Prog          	1,920,858 	25.1%
	Nat          	1,722,983 	22.5%
	Fus          	1,096,574 	14.3%
	All          	284,537   	3.7%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con         	0         	0%
			
		Total	7,660,236
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"Well. We've heard about the Nationals having success, but ultimately they come third behind the Liberals and Progressives in the popular vote of this state. New York City's votes mean a lot, but the Liberals also obtained quite a bit of support from elsewhere. As you can see on the final map..."



"There you have it. One of America's largest states--"

"--it's actually only third largest now according to the latest estimate--"

"--and though there's a lot of orange on the map, more than on the one of the Carolinas in fact, as we said it's the Liberal vote from those small New York City districts that has carried the day. But as more polls close and states report, we remind you that every vote will count. This is no longer a binary contest like a presidential election, where many voters in states like California and Hawaii simply chose not to vote as the result was already decided by the east. In this contest, we will not know who truly governs America until the final seat results are in..."

 

[Thande]

"Florida's 21st district is reporting, only two more to go after that in this key swing state - well, it was a swing state under the old system..."

    FL-21       
    Lib              149,139       42.4%
    Nat              76,100        21.6%
    Prog              57,100        16.2%
    Con              43,708        12.4%
    Cst              17,681        5%
    All              7,932         2.3%
    Fus              0             0%
           
        Total    351,661
           
    MCs elected:       
            Lib
            Nat
            Lib

"This district takes in a number of urbanised beach resorts north of Miami. Home to a number of billionaires, but we don't see the support for the Conservatives we might therefore expect - two seats to the Liberals and one to the Nationals."

"The Nationals...perhaps those billionaires support one of their own?"

    KY-05       
    Nat              105,836       38%
    Cst              60,719        21.8%
    Con              55,003        19.8%
    Prog              29,085        10.4%
    Lib              19,543        7%
    All              8,197         2.9%
    Fus              0             0%
           
        Total    278,383
           
    MCs elected:       
            Nat
            Cst
            Con

"Better news for the Conservatives, kind of, in Kentucky's fifth district, another very right-wing area where all three seats go to the right-wing parties. This is the Appalachian region again, but clearly not as all-in for the Nationals as some other parts of the region we've seen - though they're still well in front and almost took two seats."

"Interestingly, statistically this is the second most impoverished district in the United States, but is also the one with the highest percentage of voters identifying as, ah, white," despite her long tenure covering the United States, Katty Kay still had the typical British middle-class wincing stumble over that word when used in a racial sense. "All that poverty and neither left-wing party is remotely in contention. This would be like if, let's say Knowsley in the UK was voting for the Conservatives and the English Democrats and Labour was nowhere to be seen, when of course it's the opposite. That's a profound illustration in how politics in the United States is frequently driven much more by racial blocs than economic inequality."

"Yes, even under Mr Obama's reforms. We should say that we are not picking on the people of Knowsley, lest we be sent to the jam butty mines when the revolution comes. Let's move on."

    GA-05       
    Lib              185,868       60.8%
    Prog              73,937        24.2%
    Con              23,428        7.7%
    All              9,564         3.1%
    Nat              8,547         2.8%
    Cst              4,409         1.4%
    Fus              0             0%
           
        Total    305,754
           
    MCs elected:       
            Lib
            Lib
            Prog

"Speaking of race and American politics, Georgia's fifth district, more Atlanta suburbs, is majority BAME and the Liberals continue to receive considerable support from those demographics - although the Progressives still won enough support to take the third seat."

"And this time it's the right-wing parties who are all way out of contention."

"Yes. One of the elected Liberals was the pre-existing Democratic incumbent, John Lewis--"

"And I will cut you off there before you make some sort of unoriginal joking reference to Christmas adverts, being never knowingly undersold, or the like."

"...you're no fun."

    MD-07       
    Lib              164,508       51.2%
    Prog              78,925        24.6%
    Fus              34,146        10.6%
    Nat              30,780        9.6%
    All              12,932        4%
    Cst              0             0%
    Con              0             0%
           
        Total    321,292
           
    MCs elected:       
            Lib
            Lib
            Prog

"A very similar result there from Maryland's seventh district, taking in part of Baltimore and, um, random chunks elsewhere. With that result, all Maryland's votes are in and we can allocate the statewide seats, which shouldn't be a surprise in this case..."

    Maryland at-large       
    Lib              1,091,467     39.9%
    Prog              586,461       21.4%
    Nat              528,140       19.3%
    Fus              415,029       15.2%
    All              115,550       4.2%
    Cst              0             0%
    Con              0             0%
           
        Total    2,736,647
           
    MCs elected:       
            Lib
            Lib

"Yes, the Liberals take the top-up seats with almost double the votes of their nearest competitors, the Progressives. But that's not all!"

"Alright, you don't have to sound like you're on QVC."

"No, I mean that's all the votes from that, well, that admittedly rather arbitrary kludge of 'states in between other states' sectional maps I showed you before. We can now show that map completed, including all the statewide seats."



"Look at those results. Our map is a sea of blue and orange. Not blue and red, as many commentators predicted, with former Republicans crossing over to the Conservatives as their natural successor - as a much bigger chunk of Democrats have crossed over to the Liberals. In fact, in all these states the Conservatives did not run alone, but ran fusion candidates with the Constitution Party - yet they are far behind Donald Trump's National Party."

"Statewide, all three states plus DC saw the Liberals top the polls and obtain their top-up seats. Again, though, look at that pie chart for New Jersey. The Nationals were breathing down the Liberals' necks, in what was usually regarded as a safe blue state - by which I mean Democratic, of course - under the old system. Delaware too, for that matter."

"An unpleasant wake-up call for Hillary Clinton and the other Liberal leadership, which has been reflected in our American media counterparts now suggesting they were complacent. Do we have someone we can go to yet?"

"A voice in my ear is telling me that the extraction is successful, Andrew, and we will shortly be able to speak to Mr Bucket."

"What, you mean that plastic toy from the 80s that spits balls at you?"

"No, Andrew, that would be silly. I mean we've kidnapped the editor of the New York Times."

"Oh, I see. Well, that's something to look forward to. In the meantime..."

 

[Thande]

	IN-09		
	Nat          	111,984   	34.5%
	Fus          	86,133    	26.5%
	Prog          	61,884    	19.1%
	Lib          	48,974    	15.1%
	All          	15,534    	4.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	324,509
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Prog

"Another result from Indiana - the south-central part of the state, between Indianapolis and the suburbs of Louisville on the Kentucky side of the border. Another very right-wing area, but with the minority left-wing vote captured by the Progressives ahead of the Liberals here."

"The Alliance vote may be slightly higher in Indiana, due to an incident a few years ago where a Libertarian captured some votes from a discredited Republican - but it's still nowhere near winning any seats."

	PA-01		
	Lib          	151,449   	48%
	Prog          	99,475    	31.5%
	Nat          	31,924    	10.1%
	Fus          	25,597    	8.1%
	All          	7,160     	2.3%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	315,605
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"Pennsylvania's first district has finally reported - not that the numbers signify anything in terms of declaration order, of course."

"This one takes in much of the city of Philadelphia, along the banks of the Delaware River. Like most urban districts we've seen, the Liberals are in the lead, but there's also a strong Progressive vote here. None of the right-wing parties are in contention."

"Perhaps the Progressive vote is high enough that next election, they might try campaigning particularly hard here to try to flip the leading party, in an experimental way, I mean, you know, like--"

"Yes yes, or something about spreadable cheese. Let's move on."

	TN-08		
	Nat          	72,878    	24.6%
	Lib          	67,839    	22.9%
	Con          	66,165    	22.3%
	Cst          	57,659    	19.4%
	Prog          	23,186    	7.8%
	All          	8,945     	3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	296,672
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"Like neighbouring Kentucky, Tennessee seems to be delivering a better performance for the Conservatives than seen elsewhere, although it's still a far cry from what many predicted."

"The top four parties are all very close here in the eighth district, with the Constitution Party quite narrowly missing out on a seat. This is the north-west corner of the parallelogram that is Tennessee, taking in some of the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee, which is mostly in the ninth district - which should report soon. Otherwise, nowhere that anybody has heard of."

	OH-05		
	Con          	108,769   	30.2%
	Nat          	67,481    	18.8%
	Prog          	62,407    	17.4%
	Lib          	62,003    	17.2%
	Cst          	38,402    	10.7%
	All          	20,561    	5.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	359,624
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Nat
			Prog

"If there is one place where the Conservative Party is performing well tonight, though, it is Ohio - whether that's due to the personal vote of co-leader John Kasich, Governor and former Congressman for the state, or some other factor."

"It does neighbour Kentucky as well, but the personal vote doubtless matters. It is striking that Ohio, which historically was almost THE swing state, in this election is isolated, its political trends separate from most of the nation."

"Or so it seems thus far, anyway."

"Yes. Anyway, this district is in the north-west of the state - deja vu - and wraps around the city of Toledo, but is mostly smaller towns. Still more urban than rural overall, but what Americans call urban and rural may be different to what we would picture."

	GA-10		
	Nat          	77,420    	24.6%
	Lib          	77,258    	24.5%
	Con          	63,607    	20.2%
	Cst          	52,002    	16.5%
	Prog          	35,433    	11.2%
	All          	9,353     	3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	315,073
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"A bit more good news for the Conservatives, as they pick up another seat in Georgia. That's the final Georgia declaration."

"The tenth district is the area between the cities of Atlanta and Augusta. Again, we would call it rural, though the US still classifies it as somewhat more urban than rural. Quite a right-wing area in some ways, but the Liberals are not many votes behind topping the polls, with the right-wing vote so split."

"We can also give the statewide seats..."

	Georgia at-large		
	Lib          	1,340,313 	32.8%
	Nat          	821,649   	20.1%
	Con          	770,555   	18.8%
	Prog          	537,650   	13.1%
	Cst          	496,900   	12.1%
	All          	125,306   	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	4,092,373
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"Again. Another southern state, considering to be usually in the hands of the right-wing Republicans in recent years - though it has a much older Democratic tradition, and Jimmy Carter was from here - now with the Liberals well in the lead statewide."

"The legacy of a divided right and a less divided left?"

"In this case. And the map..."



"Again, a sea of blue and orange, with just one red district where the Conservatives topped the polls. As we heard from Dan Snow, if this was a purely first-past-the-post election, the results would be rather different, and we would really only be talking about three parties - the Liberals, Nationals and Progressives - most of the time."

"It would also be even stranger if these results were fed into the old presidential electoral college system, when the statewide wins were all that counted."

"We'll go back to Dan Snow at some point for that - it's just a bit of fun - but in the meantime, here's what the fully declared statewide votes look like on the map..."



"Just the original Thirteen Colonies pretty much, the eastern seaboard, except Pennsylvania which still has a couple more seats to declare."

"On American election nights, we're used to seeing the northern and southern parts of that seaboard voting very differently. But here everything is blue, except for Progressive green in the New England states and of course that deep National orange in West Virginia."

"Yes. Although we've heard about the Liberals perhaps being complacent, they are clearly occupying the centre ground of politics for many voters. While this isn't purely an FPTP election, obtaining a plurality of support in so many different states puts them in a strong position to dominate America's strange new political spectrum."

"But still, less than half of America's seats have declared, so we would be best not to count our chickens before they've hatched."

	PA-18		
	Nat          	126,135   	34%
	Fus          	88,967    	24%
	Lib          	80,950    	21.8%
	Prog          	61,755    	16.7%
	All          	12,691    	3.4%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	370,497
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Lib

"Pennsylvania's eighteenth district. This takes in a large, sort-of-rural - you know what I mean - chunk of the south-west of the state, wrapping around the city of Pittsburgh."

"A very right-wing area again, with the Nationals well ahead and the Fusion Party winning a seat as well - but the Liberals take the third."

"Also includes places called Sturgeon and Meadowlands, can the intern come up with a joke about that, I'm too busy with these declarations."

	FL-23		
	Lib          	144,317   	42.7%
	Prog          	64,763    	19.2%
	Nat          	53,913    	16%
	Con          	51,334    	15.2%
	Cst          	15,720    	4.7%
	All          	7,736     	2.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	337,782
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"Like Pennsylvania, Florida is also approaching completion. This district is in the northern part of Miami, and the leading Liberal candidate is former chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schulz."

"Yes, we may be able to speak to her later, once she is back from travelling with the Eleventh Doctor to campaign in this election only to find, hilariously, that she was actually speaking to voters in an alternate universe who can't vote in this one."

"Still better than her usual track record."

	MI-07		
	Nat          	74,398    	21.9%
	Prog          	72,677    	21.4%
	Con          	64,218    	18.9%
	Lib          	58,890    	17.3%
	Cst          	51,039    	15%
	All          	19,136    	5.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	340,358
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Prog
			Con

"Hello, this is something new. Our first result from the state of Michigan. From the southeast of the state, near Detroit and also neighbouring the Ohio district we just saw near Toledo."

"A very divided result!"

"Yes, almost a five-way split between the parties, and even a relatively good Alliance vote, too. Under those circumstances, the top three parties get seats, and in this case it's the Nationals, Progressives and Conservatives."

"No Liberals. But maybe the Conservatives really are getting a second wind as we move into Midwest states like Michigan, not to mention the Upper South like Kentucky and Tennessee."

	TN-09		
	Lib          	142,104   	63.9%
	Prog          	30,287    	13.6%
	Con          	18,437    	8.3%
	Nat          	13,734    	6.2%
	Cst          	11,798    	5.3%
	All          	5,993     	2.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	222,353
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Lib

"We were just talking about Tennessee's ninth district, and here it is - the district containing the storied city of Memphis, Tennessee, as in 'let me get in touch with her in'."

"Alright, you're not on Fame Academy, Jeremy. Very strong support for the Liberals here."

"Yes, one of the relatively few cases of all three seats going to them - many predicted we'd see more of that in urban seats, but the Progressives have captured more seats than expected. Anyway, here's a map update."



"Indeed, perhaps we were too swift to write off the Conservative Party...perhaps."

 

[Thande]

"We can shortly go to an undisclosed location, but firstly, as the hours wear on, we continue to progress through America's multiple time zones. The polls therefore continue to close in sequence and we have more results from states we have not seen before..."

	AL-03		
	Nat          	83,663    	29%
	Lib          	78,665    	27.2%
	Con          	64,689    	22.4%
	Cst          	40,125    	13.9%
	Prog          	14,636    	5.1%
	All          	6,998     	2.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	288,776
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"The first of these is Alabama. Which is a real state and not just a punchline, apparently."

"Yes, in fact Naga Munchetty will be interviewing people in Birmingham shortly."

"Alabama is an example of a state that's been gerrymandered - don't explain gerrymandering again, Jeremy - to pack most of the old Democratic voters into one district, the seventh, while the other six were won by Republicans on pluralities. The Republicans could do this because they had enough voters to secure the state legisature, which controls the district-drawing, so the thirty or forty percent of Alabama...ns who voted Democratic were largely, and deliberately, disenfranchised."

"Indeed, but under this new voting system, those kinds of boundaries can backfire. Look at this district. Although two of the seats have gone to right-wing parties - the Nationals, and another seat for the Conservatives, perhaps they are rallying after all - the second seat went to the Liberals."

"As we were saying before, most of the old Democratic vote in the Deep South, closely associated with BAME voters, seems to be transferring mostly to the Liberals, with only a small Progressive vote. So the right is more divided than the left here."

"And that's not the only new state we have a declaration from..."

	IL-15		
	Nat          	93,539    	29.2%
	Cst          	86,852    	27.1%
	Con          	46,214    	14.4%
	Prog          	43,008    	13.4%
	Lib          	35,566    	11.1%
	All          	15,262    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	320,442
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Nat

"That's our first result from Illinois, President Obama's home state. This state perhaps deserves to be better known in the UK and the wider world than it is. Illinois is the sixth largest state by population, with about twelve million people, about the same as Belgium."

"Most of those people can be found in the city of Chicago, a name which viewers everywhere will recognise, but perhaps not think of the modern diverse city rather than its historical association with gangsters such as Al Capone."

"Those city voters have tended to give the Democrats, such as Mr Obama himself, the edge in this state in recent years. With Democratic dominance, the districts have been shaped to spiral out from the city and give the Democrats an advantage, the reverse of what we just saw in Alabama. But again, now, with the new voting system, what will we see?"

"Well, this first result, from the fifteenth district, is certainly not typical. This district is in the south-east of Illinois, in what's called the downstate. This is a district in which the boundaries packed a lot of Republican voters under the old system. And the legacy of that is that all three seats go to right-wing parties now, two National MCs and a Constitution Party one - perhaps not a party we expected to see elected in a state like this."

"Yes, the new voting system is showing undercurrents that, perhaps, were formerly suppressed by the old big-tent party, winner-take-all, system."

	FL-27		
	Lib          	124,454   	41.8%
	Con          	80,340    	27%
	Prog          	49,678    	16.7%
	Nat          	25,389    	8.5%
	Cst          	10,086    	3.4%
	All          	7,618     	2.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	297,564
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Con
			Lib

"And that is our very last result from Florida, now thought to be the third largest state by population--"

"I thought you said New York was?"

"I misspoke, New York is fourth. Anyway, this district takes in large parts of Miami. Liberal dominance, but with one seat going to the Conservatives, probably stemming from the old reliable Republican voting bloc of Cuban-American exiles who oppose Fidel Castro's communist regime."

"Of which former Senator Marco Rubio is one, and I believe we can go to Emily speaking to him shortly. In the meantime, we can also declare the two statewide seats..."

	Florida at-large		
	Lib          	2,998,607 	31.8%
	Nat          	2,185,576 	23.2%
	Con          	1,605,909 	17%
	Prog          	1,506,368 	16%
	Cst          	826,401   	8.8%
	All          	297,025   	3.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	9,419,886
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"As we've seen in a number of other states, the Liberals pick up the extra seats on a plurality thanks to a divided right. The Nationals are quite a way behind in second, and the Conservatives behind them too - indeed, barely ahead of Bernie Sanders' Progressive Party, which many expected to be dead in the water in this part of the country."

"What's the overall number of seats by party in Florida, Jeremy?"

"Er, we can show that as well..."

	Florida seats and popular vote		
	Lib          	42	31.8%
	Nat          	20	23.2%
	Con          	14	17%
	Prog          	6	16%
	Cst          	1	8.8%
	All          	0	3.2%
	Fus          	0	0%

"Forty-two, that's more than half of Florida's eighty-three seats, go to the Liberals, off of less than a third of the vote. Not very proportional, some might say."

"Yes, but that's the point of this voting system, Andrew - it still rewards coming first in districts, whereas many critics of PR from a first-past-the-post perspective complain that it 'rewards losers', and some PR systems have arbitrary bonus seats for parties that come first. In fact, we heard much of that rhetoric from many former Republicans during Mr Obama's long fight to deliver the reforms. I suspect they may have changed their tune, now it turns out that it's the Liberals who are benefiting from the in-built winner bonus..."

"Yes, well, we can hear from one of those Republicans right now, while Jeremy puts up the map..."



The map also seemed visible in the background of the set which the screen abruptly cut away to, revealing Emily Maitlis speaking to a small, young, dark-haired man with a frown on his face. "Marco Rubio, you campaigned intensely for the Conservatives in your home state of Florida, especially since Mr Bush's paper bag incident - of course, it was also his own home state. You have represented it as Senator, and Mr Bush did so as Governor. So can you explain to me why this map is a sea of blue and orange, with not a single Conservative poll-topping victory in a single district?"

Rubio's frown deepened. "Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing,” the Florida senator said. “He knows exactly what he's doing."

"Yes you have won fourteen seats thanks to the limited PR system, but that's the same system you railed against, by your commitment to FPTP you'd be left with no seats at - wait, what?" Maitlis paused in her reflexive response to a predictable attack line. "What'd you say?"

"Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing,” Rubio explained with a wave of his hand. “He knows exactly what he's doing."

"Well I'm sorry if you haven't encountered a combative British journalist before and now you're getting all hot and bothered when you're used to the useless supine media in your own--" Maitlis paused again, tapping her iPad (other tablet products were available) to turn the page. "No, he's not gone to that one either," she muttered, sotto voce. "What did you - Mr Rubio, why is there a plastic ring attached to a piece of string slowly rising towards a hole in your back?"

"There's a snake in my boot," Rubio intoned dramatically.

The screen abruptly cut to black. "Well, we seem to have lost Emily and Marco Rubio there. Still, I understand that the stagehands have nearly finished hosing down the black chair, so we'll be able to speak to someone else in a moment."

	OH-09		
	Lib          	100,623   	33.4%
	Prog          	76,495    	25.4%
	Con          	57,130    	18.9%
	Nat          	39,552    	13.1%
	All          	14,333    	4.8%
	Cst          	13,522    	4.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	301,655
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Con

"To Ohio now, and to one of the nastiest pieces of gerrymandering in the nation. The ninth district is called 'the Snake by the Lake', as it groups together mostly Democratic voters - under the old system - to pack them away from Republican districts, stretching along the coastline of Lake Erie from Toledo to Cleveland."

"Spain to Teesside? That is a big district."

"Yes, all right...it's only technically continuous because of a bridge. If you tried this at home, the Cornish and the Liverpudlians would come and pi--"

"Indeed. Anyway, though it's a left-majority district, with one seat going to the Liberals and one to the Progressives, the Conservatives did nab the third seat. Quite a contrast between Ohio, where Mr Kasich as co-leader does seem to have some genuine local support, with what we just saw in Florida."

	MI-10		
	Nat          	113,315   	31.7%
	Con          	69,125    	19.3%
	Prog          	61,451    	17.2%
	Lib          	51,614    	14.4%
	Cst          	45,730    	12.8%
	All          	16,549    	4.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	357,785
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Con
			Prog

"Michigan is Ohio's neighbour - and traditional rival. But both are throwing support to the Progressives and Conservatives here, albeit in this right-leaning surburban district north of Detroit, both are behind the Nationals."

	KY-01		
	Nat          	89,434    	28.8%
	Cst          	77,923    	25.1%
	Con          	57,300    	18.5%
	Prog          	40,379    	13%
	Lib          	33,800    	10.9%
	All          	11,463    	3.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	310,299
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Con

"Speaking of right-wing districts, here's another of Kentucky's rather extreme cases, in the south-west of the state, with all three seats going to different right-wing parties."

"That's also the last of the Kentucky districts, so the top-up seats are also declared..."

	Kentucky at-large		
	Nat          	436,158   	22.7%
	Con          	383,611   	19.9%
	Cst          	383,202   	19.9%
	Lib          	321,005   	16.7%
	Prog          	307,849   	16%
	All          	91,573    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,923,398
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"No map yet because we are still waiting on results from the last two results from Tennessee. But we can say that it's the National Party which has topped the polls in Kentucky, albeit not as decisively as they did in West Virginia."

"But the two are likely related, being neighbouring states in the Appalachian region. How far will that support for Mr Trump's Nationals from these mountain voters, stereotypically called 'hillbillies', extend along this spine of the eastern United States, we ask ourselves?"

	PA-16		
	Fus          	85,223    	26.9%
	Nat          	76,540    	24.1%
	Lib          	71,105    	22.4%
	Prog          	69,081    	21.8%
	All          	15,070    	4.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	317,019
			
	MCs elected:		
			Fus
			Nat
			Lib

"Speaking of Appalachian voters...although this district in Pennsylvania is more in the foothills. It takes in Reading, Nottingham, Oxford..."

"That's a big...alright, I won't do the same joke twice."

"More importantly, the Fusionists top the poll, I think that's only the second time we've seen that?"

"Yes, the other time was Indiana's third district. To say the point of the Fusion pact was to try to combine Conservative and Constitution support in those states where it was agreed, often it seems to have had the opposite effect, repelling voters and perhaps driving them to the Nationals. Nonetheless, in this district the Fusionists have come ahead of the Nationals and Liberals."

"And our Pennsylvania map now only has a few holes in it..."

	AL-05		
	Nat          	81,159    	26.2%
	Con          	79,348    	25.6%
	Lib          	77,123    	24.9%
	Cst          	40,064    	12.9%
	Prog          	20,036    	6.5%
	All          	12,208    	3.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	309,937
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Con
			Lib

"Our second result from Alabama...the fifth district takes in the uttermost north of the state, which is an area which often doesn't follow the trends of the rest of the state, impacted by investment from projects such as the neighbouring Tennessee Valley Authority."

"Though still clearly right-leaning overall and voting for both Nationals and Conservatives, the Liberals took the third seat in a close three-way finish."

	MI-04		
	Nat          	77,494    	23.6%
	Prog          	66,940    	20.4%
	Cst          	59,028    	18%
	Con          	58,781    	17.9%
	Lib          	46,877    	14.3%
	All          	19,120    	5.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	328,240
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Prog
			Cst

"And back to Michigan for the fourth district, a chunk of rural land almost exactly in the middle of the state."

"Very divided again! The Constitution Party got the third seat there, rather than the Conservatives, by only a few hundred votes."

"And the Progressives also got representation, in what's usually considered a fairly right-wing area - interesting."

	TN-05		
	Lib          	102,775   	37.1%
	Prog          	53,833    	19.4%
	Con          	46,605    	16.8%
	Nat          	34,967    	12.6%
	Cst          	24,204    	8.7%
	All          	14,575    	5.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	276,959
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"We were just talking about the Tennessee Valley Authority...but the state's fifth district is synonymous with the city of Nashville, whose impact on music needs no introduction. A left-leaning area, another area where perhaps it's surprising to see the Liberals not shut out the Progressives. The Conservatives don't quite make it to the third seat."

	OH-16		
	Con          	111,500   	30.2%
	Lib          	80,291    	21.8%
	Nat          	71,436    	19.4%
	Prog          	65,381    	17.7%
	Cst          	24,165    	6.6%
	All          	16,064    	4.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	368,837
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Lib
			Nat

"But once again, better news for the Conservatives in Ohio."

"Yes, in the north-east of the state, taking in some of the Cleveland suburbs. Once again, though this was made as a pro-Republican gerrymandered district, the new voting system means that Liberal voters there get representation."

"We can also update the map..."



"And that's enough maps for now, because a voice in my ear is telling me that we can - at last - go to that undisclosed location..."

The lights went down, matching the dark room and dark chair that suddenly appeared on the screen.

 

[Thande]

Two BBC stagehands, dressed in their traditional brown coats and flat caps, manhandled a struggling journalist in a suit into the black chair, securing him in place with straps. Perhaps it was a trick of the low light, but beneath the shadows of their caps, there was something oddly shiny and metallic about their faces. Their black gloves stretched strangely over their subtly oddly-shaped hands.

"Thank you," said a familiar voice from the side of the dark room. Faint spotlights from the distant ceiling illumintated both the speaker and the man in the black chair, still struggling. "He may speak." One of the stagehands indifferently grasped the man's head in an inhumanly strong hand and tore away the piece of Bagpuss-themed duct tape blocking his mouth.

Immediately, the man's voice rang out, a clear, authoritative, stentorian tone. "How dare you kidnap me from my own desk - don't you realise who I am--"

"I'm afraid we very much do, Mr Bucket," John Humphrys said in a disconcertingly friendly tone. "That is precisely why you are here."

The man licked his lips. "It's Baquet," he said pointedly.

"Of course, Mr Bucket. I must, however, ask that you formally introduce yourself. Your name, please?"

"I -" Bucket looked wildly at the two stagehands, now standing silently on either side of him. "Dean P. Baquet."

"Your occupation?"

"Editor of the New York Times?"

"And your chosen specialist subject?"

"I'm sorry, I don't--"

"It says here 'Anglophobia'. Alright, Mr Bucket, you have two minutes on 'Anglophobia', starting...now. What would be an absurd thing to claim the staple diet of London is?"

"I...lamb and potatoes?"

"I will accept. If the British government were to pressure the resignation of a Metropolitan Police Commissioner who had made repeated poor calls of judgement costing numerous lives from an innocent Brazilian electrician onwards, what would an idiot claim was their only logical motivation for doing so?"

"Er...homophobia."

"Correct. When attempting to provide allegedly serious insight into political and financial events taking place in the United Kingdom, who should be the first person a joke of a newspaper would consult?"

"Ah...an unfunny and bigoted comedian pretending to be a newscaster as a joke?"

"...yeeess but you'll have to me more specific...?"

"Jonathan Pie!"

"Yes, correct. In a hypothetical scenario in which a British university, together with an Anglo-Swedish company, produced an effective vaccine against a novel pandemic virus that was cheap to produce and would save millions of lives in the developing world, what would be the most irresponsible and sociopathic way to report on it?"

"Ah...claim it doesn't work and also causes fatal reactions on a regular basis, leading to millions of avoidable deaths in Africa through spreading fear and lies?"

"Correct! In the event" - beep beep beep - "I've started so I'll finish - in the event of the beloved reigning monarch of the United Kingdom passing away and that country and many others going into mourning, when even fascist dictators and communist regimes are sending respectful tributes, what would be the most contemptible way to cover it?"

"I - headline saying 'uneasy, insecure England faces an uncertain, precarious future'?"

"I'm sure you can do worse, but I'll accept. Thank you Mr Bucket, and you have scored...five points. The good news is that this qualifies you for entry into our Cyber-conversion programme."

"I - what?"

"Take him away, you two." The spotlight faded, leaving only Humphries' faintly glowing blue eyes and earpiece. "You see, Mr Bucket, democracy dies in darkness - and so shall your frail human emotions."

Suddenly, Baquet wrestled his way out of the stagehands' grip - a flat cap flew away, revealing the steel face beneath. "Not today, you limey bastard! Human emotions, my ass! Earth shall fall to our legions, not yours!" He tore away his face, revealing a reptilian one beneath with a thrashing forked tongue tasting the air.

Humphries stared at the camera. "Good plot twist, but I still think bloody Chibnall should have finished on my line as the cliffhanger," he complained as the theme song swelled.

The screen cut back to the studio. "Did nobody tell John we wanted him to ask about the National Party's victories in New York?" Andrew Neil complained.

"I think that part may have been lost in the ether. Oh well, at least we have some more declarations."

	IL-06		
	Prog          	94,438    	26.7%
	Lib          	83,140    	23.5%
	Con          	63,044    	17.8%
	Nat          	49,942    	14.1%
	Cst          	39,923    	11.3%
	All          	23,279    	6.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	353,766
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Con

"Illinois' sixth district is perhaps more typical of the majority of the state, taking in some of the north-western suburbs of Chicago. Formerly a Democrat-held district, here we can see the minority right-wing vote has been captured by the Conservatives - which is more what we were expecting would be the default, yet it's not been seen as regularly elsewhere."

"Even more importantly, though, the Progressives have topped the polls for the first time outside of the early declarations we saw in New England - and one in New York. We've already said Mr Sanders' party has been underestimated in terms of winning seats, but now they are even topping the polls in districts again - which, perhaps, bodes well for them picking up additional statewide seats."

	PA-02		
	Lib          	220,124   	59.5%
	Prog          	114,198   	30.9%
	Nat          	15,642    	4.2%
	Fus          	12,425    	3.4%
	All          	7,367     	2%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	369,756
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"As we were saying, a lot of the Progressives' seats are, however, from coming second to the Liberals in urban districts and getting one out of the three seats. We can see that again here in Pennsylvania's second district - almost done with that state now - which mostly covers the interior of the city of Philadelphia."

	AR-01		
	Nat          	75,862    	29.1%
	Lib          	56,954    	21.8%
	Con          	49,112    	18.8%
	Cst          	44,463    	17.1%
	Prog          	21,734    	8.3%
	All          	12,592    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	260,717
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"And yet another new state giving us results, as the polls close."

"Yes, Arkansas, pronounced Arkensor, part of the interior Upper South region...this was, of course, Bill Clinton's home state, and the Democrats were dominant here for quite a while after they began to fade from the rest of the South. But it has trended sharply away from the Democrats under Mr Obama, and indeed the party organisation here practically collapsed. Under the old FPTP system, these districts went rapidly from Democrats opposed only by Greens, to Republicans opposed only by Libertarians."

"But looking quite different now?"

"Yes, another fairly close race between the top four parties...the Nationals are out in front again, with the Conservatives relegated to third. But look at the Liberals, taking the second seat. The residual left-wing vote here now has representation again."

"An interesting consequence of the new system, indeed. How will it affect American politics in the long run, we wonder?"

	TN-04		
	Nat          	79,069    	28.4%
	Con          	61,687    	22.2%
	Cst          	48,858    	17.6%
	Lib          	46,904    	16.9%
	Prog          	28,926    	10.4%
	All          	12,592    	4.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	278,035
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Con
			Cst

"No residual left-wing vote here in Tennessee, though. For all that this district was Democratic as recently as 2010, both Liberals and Progressives are out of contention here, with all three seats going to right-wing parties."

"That's also the last Tennessee district, so we can look at the top-up seats..."

	Tennessee at-large		
	Nat          	594,875   	23.8%
	Lib          	585,369   	23.5%
	Con          	550,116   	22.1%
	Cst          	377,934   	15.2%
	Prog          	285,326   	11.4%
	All          	100,618   	4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,494,238
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Well. A very close result, with the Liberals less than ten thousand votes away from topping the polls, but it's the National Party whose plurality delivers a bonus. The Conservatives in third, but a close balance between the top three."

"Which means that, like its neighbour Kentucky, Tennessee shows a very divided result, but one where the Appalachian vote - and from elsewhere to a lesser extent - for the Nationals appears to have won the day."



"We wondered if this was a rally for the Conservative Party, but though they topped the polls in several districts of these states, it wasn't enough."

"No indeed. Let's look again at the picture across the USA so far. With the caveat that we are looking at declarations going from east to west, so there will be a geographic bias - with, ah, forty-five percent of seats in, that's 620, how do things look?"

241	Lib          	
166	Nat    	
105	Prog        	
64	Con          	
22	Cst        	
22	Fus       	
0	All

"A clear lead for the Liberals, but still everything to play for..."

 

[Thande]

"Let's have some more results then, before we go to Naga in Birmingham."

	OH-01		
	Lib          	94,794    	26.2%
	Con          	91,946    	25.4%
	Nat          	67,402    	18.7%
	Prog          	66,194    	18.3%
	Cst          	25,677    	7.1%
	All          	15,284    	4.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	361,297
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Con
			Nat

"Ohio's first district, in the southwest, taking in parts of Cincinnati. Although this district had a slight Republican majority under the old system, the more divided right here means that the Liberals narrowly take first place, with the Conservatives in second and then the Nationals."

"Interestingly this number district was once represented by future President William Henry Harrison, you know, the overcoat one. Or lack thereof."

"Yes, but at that point wasn't it in a completely different part of the state?"

"...that's not the point."

	IL-02		
	Lib          	146,691   	48.3%
	Prog          	90,035    	29.7%
	Nat          	24,532    	8.1%
	Cst          	18,248    	6%
	Con          	15,244    	5%
	All          	8,872     	2.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	303,622
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"Illinois' second district is one of the many in the Chicago area, reaching out from the shores of Lake Michigan into the interior - in this case the southern suburbs."

"The Democrats dominated under the old system, and here it's another two-one split between the Liberals and Progressives, as we've seen in many other diverse, urban districts across the nation."

"And here's what our map of Illinois is starting to look like..."



"We already have three different party colours on there after three different results! Illinois is going to be more politically diverse than some of the other states we've seen, it's already apparent."

"Perhaps what Mr Obama would have wanted his new system to achieve in his home state. But let's move on."

	PA-08		
	Nat          	105,632   	27.3%
	Lib          	103,845   	26.8%
	Prog          	81,840    	21.1%
	Fus          	80,975    	20.9%
	All          	14,733    	3.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	387,025
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Prog

"Pennsylvania's eighth district is the antepenultimate one, and the state totals are looking... but we'll discuss that when the last two come in."

"Here we've got some more examples of how this new district-PR system doesn't stop nail-biting finishes. The Nationals came just ahead of the Liberals - well so what, they both get seats anyway - but there was a real race between the Progressives and the Fusionists to win the last seat, Mr Sanders' party triumphing by less than a thousand votes out of almost four hundred thousand votes cast."

"Still a nail-biter indeed. As we were saying, most district numbers move around a lot, but this one has been in Bucks County since at least the war, quite a divided area."

"What, as in Buckinghamshire, or...?"

"Well originally, William Penn named it after it, but they've since forgotten that Bucks was the abbreviation and just use it as the whole official name of the county."

"Jesus, I feel like we're in one of those post-apocalyptic science fiction novels. This is the BBC, the Voice of the Great God Reith, calling to you tonight from the Empire of W12."

"Don't try to be cute, Jeremy."

	IN-07		
	Lib          	78,401    	29.7%
	Prog          	77,638    	29.4%
	Nat          	50,293    	19%
	Fus          	45,369    	17.2%
	All          	12,688    	4.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	264,389
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Nat

"Moving west again, Indiana's seventh district - quite a rarity in this mostly very right-wing state, this one is based in the city of Indianapolis, and it was considered a safe Democratic seat under the old system."

"Now, though, one of the seats does go to the right - with the Nationals just barely beating out the Fusionists."

	WI-07		
	Nat          	100,404   	27.1%
	Cst          	84,236    	22.8%
	Prog          	79,657    	21.5%
	Lib          	58,217    	15.7%
	Con          	28,827    	7.8%
	All          	18,500    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	369,841
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Prog

"Something new, now. Our first result from yet another new state. This one is Wisconsin. Katty, tell us about Wisconsin."

"Well, it's a Midwest state that sits on the western coast of Lake Michigan. Farming is big here and industry used to be quite big in Milwaukee on that coast. Most of the settlers came from Germany and they still have German-influenced culture, with Oktoberfest and everything. I am told they all talk like 'hello dere, ope, I dropped my baaaayg'. Oh, and they're obsessed with cheese."

"I thought all Americans put cheese on everything?"

"Yes, but theirs might actually be edible."

"Fair enough. Well, from this result, it looks like a rather right-wing state? All three seats going to right-wing parties."

"That's not typical, Andrew. This district is in the very rural northwest, so it's a bit surprising that it's declared first. Usually Wisconsin is a fairly reliable member of the Democratic column under the old system, at least on the presidential level. To the point that I don't think Mrs Clinton actually campaigned there for the Liberals..."

"Well, we'll see...and I can see Jeremy is dying to put up a map update."



"Well, despite what Katty just said, that does look like a growing sea of Trump orange," (pause for smirk) "in these two neighbouring states."

"Calm down, the Liberals have got this, I'm sure. Er, I mean-"

	OH-07		
	Con          	97,261    	29.6%
	Nat          	75,388    	22.9%
	Lib          	59,035    	17.9%
	Prog          	48,969    	14.9%
	Cst          	32,916    	10%
	All          	15,369    	4.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	328,938
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Nat
			Lib

"Back to Ohio, and this district in the middle-northeast of the state...another relative success for the Conservatives in co-leader John Kasich's home state, although they still have yet to win more than one seat per district, unlike say the Liberals, Nationals or Progressives..."

	PA-06		
	Lib          	94,166    	25.6%
	Nat          	90,228    	24.5%
	Fus          	85,112    	23.1%
	Prog          	83,473    	22.6%
	All          	15,575    	4.2%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	368,554
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Nat
			Fus

"Pennsylvania's sixth district, penultimate one, and this time the Fusionists beat the Progressives to take the third seat."

"This one's in the south-east of the state, and takes in, er, parts of Chester, Montgomery, Reading..."

"WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?"

"...and Lebanon."

"Nick Ferrari has gone too far."

	WI-02		
	Prog          	168,805   	40.9%
	Lib          	102,702   	24.9%
	Cst          	44,263    	10.7%
	Nat          	41,071    	9.9%
	Con          	34,274    	8.3%
	All          	21,688    	5.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	412,803
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"Another district in Wisconsin, and I see what you meant, Katty, this one's rather different politically!"

"Yes, this one's in southern Wisconsin. It's actually quite big and not what we would call that urban, despite all three seats going to the left, though it does have the city of Madison."

	MS-01		
	Nat          	88,697    	28.7%
	Cst          	83,898    	27.2%
	Lib          	79,845    	25.9%
	Con          	28,643    	9.3%
	Prog          	20,924    	6.8%
	All          	6,709     	2.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	308,717
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Lib

"And from a very different part of the country, Mississ - isssismmiss -isspi -"

"Mississippi's first district."

"Yes, that. Well, in addition to being the most difficult to spell and pronounce, this is America's poorest state, isn't it?"

"As we discussed before, yes. This district does include the major university, though, located in Oxford."

"An American place name connection that actually makes sense? Is that allowed?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, so is gerrymandering to disenfranchise the BAME voters. But under this new system, you can see that the Liberals have secured the third seat in what was formerly a reliable Republican district."

"With both the Nationals and the Constitution Party taking seats...Jeremy, can we look at the overall picture in Alabama and Mississississ - the other one?"

"I thought you'd never ask."



"Once again, a considerable range of parties on display in what used to just be a polarised two-party race...though again, orange seems to the leading colour everywhere here too."

"Let's...not think about that too hard, but move on."

	MI-03		
	Prog          	90,493    	25.9%
	Con          	67,241    	19.2%
	Cst          	63,171    	18.1%
	Lib          	56,837    	16.3%
	Nat          	49,932    	14.3%
	All          	21,816    	6.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	349,490
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Con
			Cst

"Speaking of political diversity, Michigan's third district - in the west-centre of the state - goes Progressive-Conservative-Constitution, which I don't think is a combination we've seen before. Both the Liberals and Nationals fail to get a seat."

"Also a relatively high vote for the Alliance Party, though nowhere near taking a seat of course. The former Republican incumbent, and Conservative leading candidate this time, Justin Amash, is known to have libertarian sympathies, which may be connected."

	IL-17		
	Lib          	67,024    	23.3%
	Prog          	66,975    	23.3%
	Cst          	51,636    	18%
	Nat          	48,615    	16.9%
	Con          	35,765    	12.5%
	All          	17,087    	6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	287,103
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Cst

"Another unusual combination from Illinois' seventeenth district, in the west of the state. Usually quite reliably Democratic under the old system, except during in the Republican wave election of 2010... here the Progressives and Liberals are almost tied and get a seat each, but the third seat goes to the Constitution Party - perhaps not whom we might have expected."

"Yes, this new voting system is showing hidden political undercurrents in many places. Speaking of which, we have the final Pennsylvania district..."

	PA-11		
	Nat          	121,477   	38%
	Fus          	70,201    	22%
	Lib          	58,917    	18.4%
	Prog          	56,697    	17.8%
	All          	12,089    	3.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	319,380
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Nat

"As I said, that's the last district...and this one falls right along the backbone of the Appalachian mountains, which we've discussed so much, stretching from Scranton to Harrisburg...an area which has been such a support base for Mr Trump's National Party, and well..."

"By PR standards, that's an overwhelming victory. The third seat's going to the Fusionists, and no left-wing parties in contention. Which...ah...which also has consequences for Pennsylvania's overall vote numbers, and therefore its statewide top-up seats..."

	Pennsylvania at-large		
	Nat          	1,724,018 	28.2%
	Lib          	1,640,250 	26.8%
	Prog          	1,285,525 	21%
	Fus          	1,246,834 	20.4%
	All          	218,166   	3.6%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	6,114,793
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Now that is a shock. By a significant margin - less than a million votes, but only out of six million cast - Pennsylvania's polls are topped not by the Liberals, as we might expect in what was formerly a reliable Democratic state, but by the National Party. Katty, can you, can you explain?"

"No, Andrew, this is going to keep the psephologists up all night. The appeal of Mr Trump's avowed protectionist economic policies to mining communities in decline in the Appalachian region may be part of it, as we saw in West Virginia. But this was not foreseen by anyone. Look at that sea of orange on the map."



"Twenty seats go to the Nationals, eighteen to the Liberals, twelve to the Fusionists, and six to the Progressives..."

"Of course, we could say that we've already seen multiple southern states give their statewide votes to the Liberals, when the Republicans used to have the majority there. So the left and right can fracture differently in different places, and this is just a quirk of that, and we absolutely definitely don't need to panic."

"Errr...to take our minds off of that, let's now go to Naga Munchetty, interviewing voters in Birmingham."

The screen flickered and resolved to show Naga standing in front of a multi-tiered, ornate, golden library.

Just before the studio sound cut off, the words 'oh, for fuck's s-' could distinctly be heard.

 

[Thande]

Munchetty smiled brightly at the camera, microphone in hand. "Yes, I'm here in Byrming-HAM to interview voters from Alabama about the new US election which is going on."

A few quick editing cuts as she spoke to different people in the street. A man with dark glasses, a goatee and an afro-like mass of hair, the latter two obviously dyed. "Well, this Hillary Clinton, y'know, some people say she's an evil woman, but I say she's just a sweet talkin' woman. Communication breakdown all around, insufficient data comin' through. What a terrible thing to lose."

"I see. And what do you think to Ted Cruz?"

The man paused for a moment and his lips moved, then he shrugged. "He's a twat."

Abrupt jump-cut to a thin, balding elderly man with slightly bulging eyes. "Well, I think the health insurance situation in the US really needs sorting. Speaking of insurance, you know those statements you have to fill in when you have a car crash, well, in Australia, it turns out-" Another abrupt cut, the only evidence being that Naga now looked slightly irritated. "But anyway, I think it's good that the US now has more parties. Maybe they can stop their diners serving up the bits of food that everyone else throws away now. Chickens haven't GOT wings! And it's not potato skins, it's potato PEEL!" (And again) "...yes, more parties is good. Means it's not just the same tired old policies. They've got some new material to tackle today's problems. And talking of problems (pause) I've got this mole..."

Cut to Naga, now looking weary, speaking to a woman in a white headscarf, with a battered picture of George Galloway in the centre of a rosette pinned to her equally white clothes. "Well, I'm very disappointed in Barack Obama," she said. "When he was elected, all the Republicans could talk about was how he was going to introduce sharia law." She looked about herself theatrically. "And yet they haven't rolled it out anywhere in the US! What kind of political promise breaking is that?"

Cut again to an an ageing, familiar-looking black man, clearly at the end of a long spiel. "Katanga, my friends, katanga! Oooooooookay!" (Annoyed) "Alright, I've said it. And now, can I talk quite seriously about the shocking treatment of black people by the police in the US and what Barack Obama is doing-"

"No, I'm sorry, we've run out of time."

Another abrupt cut to Naga standing in front of New Street station, covered in scaffolding. "So there you have it - the views of the ordinary people of Byrming-HAM, Alabama, on this unique American election. Andrew, back to y-"

"No, you're not getting away with this!" Neil intruded. "We already did this joke with Matt Frei, you can't just go to the wrong Birmingham!" He paused. "As in, Beerming-um rather than Byrming-HAM, I mean."

Munchetty looked confused. "But this is Byrming-HAM, isn't it? I mean..." She held up a tourism leaflet. "It's got the right skyline and everything!"

Neil quietly facepalmed. "All right. Whatever. We'd better stop this segment soon, the backroom boys already tell me that the social media pipelines are getting choked with random racist messages because you're on camera. Some of them are even from the United States."

Munchetty frowned. "That's a sad state of affairs." She paused. "Have we got time for me to gaslight you a bit by reminding you that, while 95% of the reason people dislike me is indeed horrible racism, I also occasionally actually say something genuinely unhinged, but you can't point it out without being grouped with all the racists?"

"Oh, go on then."

"Ah...Denmark did 9/11?"

"Come on, that's just derivative of what Trump said earlier, get better material."

"That's what I said to that bald bloke," Munchetty muttered as she vanished from the screen.

Neil stared into the camera with a fixed smile on his face. "Suddenly, the fact that Mr Trump's party has won Pennsylvania no longer feels so awful by comparison. Let's move on."

	MS-04		
	Nat          	97,648    	34.5%
	Cst          	70,543    	25%
	Lib          	61,507    	21.8%
	Con          	27,728    	9.8%
	Prog          	18,538    	6.6%
	All          	6,758     	2.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	282,721
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Lib

"Mississ...ippi's fourth district is in the south-east, along the coast, and includes the city of Biloxi, which I am absolutely definitely mispronouncing."

"Similar results to the first district we just saw - National and Constitution parties in the lead, but the Liberals taking the last seat. Conservatives and Progressives not in contention here."

	IL-10		
	Lib          	98,966    	34.3%
	Prog          	79,891    	27.7%
	Con          	42,123    	14.6%
	Nat          	34,378    	11.9%
	Cst          	17,608    	6.1%
	All          	15,338    	5.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	288,303
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"Another Illinois district, and another Chicago district, taking in the northern suburbs."

"Until recently, under the old system this was represented by Bob Dold, who is the past tense of Bob Dole."

"Don't try to be clever, Jeremy."

	OH-03		
	Lib          	123,950   	39.5%
	Prog          	86,495    	27.5%
	Con          	54,851    	17.5%
	Nat          	22,088    	7%
	All          	13,886    	4.4%
	Cst          	12,885    	4.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	314,155
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"And a very similar result from Ohio's third distrct, which is shaped like a Mandelbrot set but takes in the city of Columbus. The Conservatives weren't that far off getting the third seat."

	MI-02		
	Prog          	80,039    	23.1%
	Cst          	77,263    	22.3%
	Con          	66,948    	19.3%
	Lib          	52,423    	15.1%
	Nat          	48,988    	14.1%
	All          	20,844    	6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	346,505
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Cst
			Con

"Another interesting result there from Michigan. Katty?"

"Very divided between the parties, indeed. Michigan's second district is on the coast of Lake Michigan - facing across from Wisconsin on the other side. It has more people of Dutch descent than any other district in the US."

"No wonder they've split between so many parties then. Any chance of a seat for PvdD or the SGP?"

"...no. Well, I suppose there is a seat for the Constitution Party and they're basically like the SGP. Anyway, this district was Republican under the old system, and two seats are going to right-wing parties here - with the Nationals not in contention, unusually, just like the Liberals - but it's the Progressives who take the leading seat. Jeremy's map's looking more colourful"

"Interesting."

	AL-01		
	Nat          	89,507    	29.5%
	Lib          	81,901    	27%
	Con          	65,885    	21.7%
	Cst          	37,242    	12.3%
	Prog          	21,463    	7.1%
	All          	7,481     	2.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	303,478
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"Down to Alabama now-"

"If you turn that into a song I'm leaving."

"...where the first district is in the south-west of the state, along the Gulf coast again, like we saw with neighbouring Mississ - the other one. Anyway, this takes in the big port city of Mobile."

"It's pronounced Mo-beel."

"Now you're just making stuff up."

"Anyway, this is usually a reliably Republican district under the old system, but again one seat has gone to the Liberals. The Conservatives get the third this time, staging a limited fightback in these Deep South states, it seems."

	OH-04		
	Con          	97,272    	30%
	Nat          	76,014    	23.4%
	Lib          	52,973    	16.3%
	Prog          	46,668    	14.4%
	Cst          	35,430    	10.9%
	All          	16,292    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	324,648
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Nat
			Lib

"And speaking of the Conservatives..."

"The same parties win, actually, but just in a different order, here in Ohio's fourth district, which has been compared to, er, a 'zigzag duck'."

"That's an obscure Irish disco hit from 1978 isn't it?"

"...no. Again a right-wing district usually, but the Liberals get a seat, and in Ohio if nowhere else, the Conservatives are comfortably on top."

	IL-11		
	Prog          	86,069    	30.8%
	Lib          	78,564    	28.1%
	Nat          	38,351    	13.7%
	Con          	33,441    	12%
	Cst          	27,311    	9.8%
	All          	15,883    	5.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	279,620
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"Yet another Illinois district, more the outer suburbs of Chicago, but still comfortably in the bag for the left-wing parties. As we saw before in the fourth district, here it's the Progressives that are on top and the Liberals are playing second fiddle."

	MI-11		
	Prog          	94,131    	24.1%
	Lib          	83,012    	21.2%
	Con          	82,824    	21.2%
	Nat          	74,125    	19%
	Cst          	37,296    	9.5%
	All          	19,538    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	390,926
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Con

"Another eleventh district, and another suburban district, no less, but this time it's the suburbs of Detroit."

"The Progressives take the lead yet again, interestingly, but the Conservatives get the third seat, almost tying with the Liberals. We do appear to be seeing a limited recovery for the Conservatives after their very poor results on the eastern seaboard."

"Shall we talk about how much Marco Rubio sucks again?"

"Oh, there isn't any point, he won't understand anyway."

	IN-01		
	Lib          	85,776    	28.6%
	Nat          	79,098    	26.3%
	Prog          	76,582    	25.5%
	Fus          	45,540    	15.2%
	All          	13,287    	4.4%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	300,283
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Nat
			Prog

"Back to Indiana, and this is the only other district - other than the seventh which we've already seen - that elected Democrats under the old system. It takes in the city of Gary in the northwest, which bleeds into the suburbs of Chicago in neighbouring Illinois."

"A city named Gary sounds like something from a bootleg Pokémon translation."

"Alright, no need to show you're down with the kids."

"That was nineteen ninety effing eight!"

"You with your skateboards and your PlayStations. Anyway, Liberal, National, Progressive, not a combination we've seen in many places I think...and let's have a map update."



"The colours of Ohio are certainly looking quite different to what we've seen elsewhere."

	AL-07		
	Lib          	158,424   	54%
	Prog          	46,162    	15.7%
	Nat          	36,193    	12.3%
	Con          	28,328    	9.7%
	Cst          	19,393    	6.6%
	All          	4,731     	1.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	293,231
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Lib

"So this is another gerrymandered district, in which most of the BAME voters in Alabama were packed into this district, taking in much of Birmingham-"

"Please don't remind me."

"-and also other black majority areas, including Selma, which some of us may remember from the Civil Rights marches of the 1960s."

"Alright, now you've gone too far the other way with the age-specific references. The Civil Rights movement was a long time ago, all the kids have learned in school about how racism was solved forever then, now, please go back to talking about racial gerrymandering."

"Yes. Well, as we were saying before, in this case the new voting system has caused the gerrymandering to backfire - while the districts in which the old Republicans just secured a narrow but reliable majority for themselves, we're seeing Liberals elected to one of the seats, whereas here where BAME voters were packed into one, all three have gone to the Liberals. Suddenly it does make a difference whether you get 51% or 95% of the vote to win a district."

"I see."

	IL-18		
	Cst          	82,427    	23.7%
	Nat          	66,095    	19%
	Prog          	62,547    	18%
	Con          	62,007    	17.9%
	Lib          	52,894    	15.2%
	All          	21,164    	6.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	347,134
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Prog

"Another Illinois district, and a rural one this time, in the west of the state, rather than Chicago. Now Abraham Lincoln briefly represented a district in this geographical area, rather than just using the number-"

"My word, are you allowed to do that?"

"And, as we were saying, quite a diversity of colours on the map now. Mr Cruz's Constitution Party are in the lead, then the Nationals, then the Progressives just barely beat the Conservatives to the last seat."

"What do you think Abraham Lincoln would think to Ted Cruz?"

"Who can say. Well, who can say before the watershed, anyway. Besides, we don't even know what Mr Cruz's opinions on cheese are."

"Job for Emily Maitlis to find out, I think. And...a voice in my ear is telling me we've just about reached half of all seats declared now, so let's have an update on total seat numbers..."

264	Lib          	
182	Nat    	
121	Prog        	
71	Con          	
29	Cst        	
24	Fus       	
0	All

"Out of 691 seats declared, the Liberals are the clear leading party, but still have only uh...thirty-eight percent of all seats. And the Nationals in second. Not something anyone predicted." (Pregnant pause) "Then the Progressives in third. Also contrary to predictions, that Mr Sanders' party would be the only one to make three figures thus far. Of course, it depends on how one counts the Fusion candidates. The Conservatives along have seventy-one seats, but with the Fusionists would have ninety-five...er, which is still less than a hundred, isn't it? Or if you added the Fusionists to the Constitution Party, they'd have fifty-three...add all three of those right-wing parties together and they'd have one hundred and twenty-four."

"Which is slightly more than the Progressives, but still far fewer than the Nationals. Much of the right-wing vote in the United States has been captured by the populism and violent rhetoric of Mr Trump. One wonders what the reaction from the rest of the world will be."

"Well, regardless, we will not know what government is formed until the end of this election night - if then. In the meantime, stay with us on the BBC, and ignore the ominous tolling bell of doom in the background."

"Oh sorry, I forgot to put my phone on silent."

 

[Thande]

"I understand we may be able to speak to one of the party leaders shortly...but in the meantime, more results are coming in from the Midwest and Deep South."

	OH-08		
	Con          	100,334   	29.3%
	Nat          	89,288    	26%
	Lib          	57,432    	16.8%
	Prog          	47,495    	13.9%
	Cst          	33,598    	9.8%
	All          	14,636    	4.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	342,785
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Nat
			Lib

"Another result from Ohio. The eighth district is in the west of the state, north of Cincinnati. Until recently, it was represented by John Boehner - don't laugh - the leader of the Republicans in the old House of Representatives."

"Another poll topped by the Conservatives, as we've seen several times in Ohio but rarely outside it."

	IL-09		
	Lib          	123,267   	36.3%
	Prog          	114,829   	33.8%
	Con          	38,425    	11.3%
	Nat          	27,925    	8.2%
	Cst          	18,105    	5.3%
	All          	17,035    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	339,587
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"And Illinois' ninth district, another one in northern Chicago...another close fight between the Liberals and Progressives for first place."

"Yes, due to the third highest party - the Conservatives - not being close enough to be in contention, every vote matters a lot; if the Liberals are one vote ahead of the Progressives, they get two seats to the Progressives' one, and vice versa. With it being closer than expected in some urban centres like Chicago, the Progressives may end up pulling off some unexpected wins - as we already saw in Illinois' fourth district."

	MI-06		
	Prog          	82,647    	24.9%
	Lib          	59,658    	18%
	Con          	59,647    	18%
	Cst          	55,478    	16.7%
	Nat          	55,189    	16.6%
	All          	19,366    	5.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	331,986
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Con

"Speaking of Progressive success, they top the polls in Michigan's sixth district, which is in the south-west, on the coast of Lake Michigan, and is centred on the city of Kalamazoo."

"Oh come on, that's just a magic word said by the fairy godmother in Cinderella, if you're going to make stuff up, at least make it plausible...and non-Disney-copyright-violating."

"No, really...anyway, that's almost a perfect dead heat between the Liberals and Conservatives in second and third, both taking a seat. Let's have a map update."



"Not as orange as the last time we looked at these states. An orange-green contrast is not something we've seen before, I think, with Nationals and Progressives fighting it out to top the polls."

"Probably there will also be some blue, at least, before the night is over, as the Liberals are predicted to top the polls in some urban districts...well, before tonight, most pollsters expected them to top them in all urban districts, on the other hand."

	IN-08		
	Nat          	117,034   	38.9%
	Fus          	77,285    	25.7%
	Prog          	49,938    	16.6%
	Lib          	42,953    	14.3%
	All          	13,577    	4.5%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	300,787
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Nat

"No blue or green in Indiana's eighth district, though, once again the Nationals and Fusionists split the seats between them."

"This one is in the south-west, and it used to be called 'The Bloody Eighth'..."

"Katty, please, there are children accidentally tuning into this instead of repeats of whatever kids' show was big in 2016, I can't be bothered to check."

"...because it was a hotly-competed-for swing district. But this is another example of the realignment that happened in Appalachia and some adjacent areas, with the former Democratic voters mostly going Republican - on the old system. Now, at least that large right-wing bloc can show nuance within it via the multiple right-wing parties."

	LA-03		
	Nat          	97,046    	28.3%
	Cst          	89,584    	26.1%
	Lib          	68,228    	19.9%
	Con          	44,388    	12.9%
	Prog          	32,013    	9.3%
	All          	11,766    	3.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	343,025
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Lib

"An interesting mix in Louisiana's third district, which is another one along the Gulf Coast - including the city of Lafayette and that damn fiddly island that's a nightmare to colour in on maps."

"The Nationals and Constitution Party are fighting it out, reflecting the nature of different strands of the right here, while the Liberals get the third seat - again, gerrymandered borders will find it much harder to exclude minorities under this new system."

	OH-15		
	Con          	106,383   	29.9%
	Lib          	72,040    	20.3%
	Prog          	69,614    	19.6%
	Nat          	60,934    	17.1%
	Cst          	29,361    	8.3%
	All          	17,058    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	355,390
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Lib
			Prog

"And back to Ohio for the fifteenth district, in the south-central part of the state. Yet another win for the Conservatives, but this time it's the Progressives that get the third seat. The Nationals are excluded from representation at all."

"A curious result for quite a rural district that normally backed the Republicans under the old system - although President Obama did win the votes of this area in his 2008 presidential run - with the right sufficiently divided that the left-wing parties get more representation."

	AL-06		
	Con          	89,152    	27%
	Nat          	86,600    	26.3%
	Lib          	67,522    	20.5%
	Cst          	57,741    	17.5%
	Prog          	18,595    	5.6%
	All          	10,239    	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	329,849
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Nat
			Lib

"And another lead for the Conservatives, but in a state where we've not seen it before...here in Alabama's sixth district, which takes in parts of Birmingham-"

"-don't remind me-"

"-the Conservatives narrowly beat out the Nationals, with the Liberals taking the third seat."

"Ah. A voice in my ear is telling me that the person we can speak to soon may be able to shed some insight into the Conservatives' successes...here, at least."

	IN-05		
	Fus          	102,977   	28.3%
	Nat          	90,045    	24.8%
	Prog          	77,462    	21.3%
	Lib          	72,633    	20%
	All          	20,507    	5.6%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	363,624
			
	MCs elected:		
			Fus
			Nat
			Prog

"You could kind of call this a Conservative success as well, sort of, as their fusion with the Constitution Party has beat the Nationals here in Indiana too. With the Progressives quite narrowly beating the Liberals to take the third seat."

"This takes in the area north of Indianapolis, and the northern parts of the city. It's the wealthiest part of Indiana."

"Yes, ironic that Donald Trump's message seems to appeal more to poorer right-wing voters than his own economic class, perhaps."

"A bit early to say. That's the last result from Indiana, though, which means we can also declare the statewide seats..."

	Indiana at-large		
	Nat          	834,952   	30.6%
	Fus          	722,469   	26.5%
	Prog          	541,689   	19.9%
	Lib          	491,514   	18%
	All          	134,002   	4.9%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,724,626
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Well. Despite that success from the Fusionists there, the Nationals still lead in the Indianan state popular vote."

"Hoosier. Hoosier."

"...are you having a stroke?"

"No, that's the adjective for Indiana. Hoosier."

"...are they having a stroke?" (Muttered) "Never mind. Anyway, that's another two bonus seats for Mr Trump's party, after those we saw in Kentucky, Tennessee, and of course West Virginia. A concern perhaps, in the corridors of power."

"We shall see..."

	MI-13		
	Lib          	137,587   	51.9%
	Prog          	71,518    	27%
	Nat          	23,669    	8.9%
	Con          	14,616    	5.5%
	Cst          	9,826     	3.7%
	All          	8,127     	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	265,343
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"Well, we thought we'd see some blue on the Michigan map, and we do. A firm win for the Liberals in the thirteenth district, which takes in a substantial part of Detroit city centre."

"So they actually still have votes in Detroit? Pop culture taught me it was a burning desolate wasteland abandoned by humanity?"

"Don't be silly, it's gone way upmarket again since they got Robocop in."

"Oh, of course, silly me."

	MO-06		
	Nat          	91,803    	25.9%
	Cst          	87,005    	24.6%
	Prog          	59,126    	16.7%
	Lib          	52,930    	15%
	Con          	44,568    	12.6%
	All          	18,583    	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	354,014
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Prog

"Now this is our first result from Missouri..."

"Michigan! Mississippi! Missouri! America has too many states that start with Mi-. Please eliminate one. PS I am not a crank."

"We haven't even got to Minnesota yet...anyway, Missouri kind of sits at a cultural crossroads between different regions like the Upper South and the Midwest, and that's reflected here in a divided vote. Somewhat similar to the Louisiana district we just saw, it's a close fight between the Nationals and the Constitution Party, but the Progressives nab the third seat - showing the diversity of opinions here."

"Yes, Missouri will be a difficult one to call, as there's a lot of difference between different parts of it. It also shows that we're moving into new time zone polls-closure times and seeing new states again."

"And speaking of which, we're also in a position to finish states off, as we get the last result now from Ohio..."

	OH-11		
	Lib          	177,195   	54.8%
	Prog          	83,103    	25.7%
	Con          	34,252    	10.6%
	Nat          	16,026    	5%
	All          	7,985     	2.5%
	Cst          	4,740     	1.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	323,301
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"Quite different to most of the state. The eleventh district was gerrymandered to cram most of the BAME voters of Cleveland and Akron into one district. But unlike some such districts where all three seats have gone to the Liberals, here the Progressives manage to take the third seat."

"As you said, that's the last Ohio district, so we can now report the statewide vote..."

	Ohio at-large		
	Con          	1,422,010 	25.9%
	Lib          	1,356,511 	24.8%
	Prog          	1,037,653 	18.9%
	Nat          	1,019,596 	18.6%
	Cst          	399,399   	7.3%
	All          	245,004   	4.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	5,480,173
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Con

"That's something we've not seen before - the Conservatives topping the polls across a state and taking the top-up seats. Now, is this a turnaround for the more moderate of the right-wing parties (or at least the one everyone says is moderate, without actually doing much differently) or is it just a fluke?"

"It was pretty close. The Liberals almost took the lead. Remember Ohio did vote for President Obama in both 2008 and 2012, even though otherwise it's been trending towards the right."

"We can also show our completed map of Ohio and Indiana..."



"A sea of red in Ohio, and quite a bit of pink in Indiana...different to what we've seen elsewhere, to say the least."

"And a voice in my ear is telling me that we can now go to that person I was telling you about...yes, live from Grabbit and Runne's Memorial Hospital in Texas, Conservative Party leader, former Governor Jeb Bush!"

The screen flickered and resolved itself into a new image.

 

[Thande]

Appearing on the screen was a bright white hospital ward, with the camera focused on a bed. In the bed, his eyes closed, was, indeed, Jeb Bush. A tube went into his nose for no apparent reason other than to make him look a bit like a Borg halfway through makeup, while sticking plasters (each prominently displaying the word BAND-AID™) covered various wounds on his hands and arms. They looked suspiciously like paper cuts. An IV drip went into his arm, but not before going through a machine that looked a lot like a petrol pump counter. Indeed, 'THIS SALE' was next to a $ sign and a rapidly scrolling array of digits. The only difference was that there did not seem to be a decimal point marker for cents, instead simply having a lowercase letter k at the end.

"Mr Bush," began the off-camera voice of Andrew Neil. "Mr Bush, are you awake?"

Another, equally familiar, face entered the screen and the camera belatedly focused on it. "I'm real sorry, Mister Neil, but my brother Jeb's had kind of a relapse." Former President George W. Bush hesitated. He was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt covered in small, multicoloured paint stains, and his hair had, strangely, been shaped into an afro. "I knew it was a bad idea to buy him a copy of Metal Gear Solid, seeing all those exclamation points made him come over all funny."

"Er..." Neil gamely rallied. "Very well, Mr Bush, would you be willing to talk to us about the Conservative Party's fortunes?"

"Sure thing." Bush frowned. "One thing I wanna make real clear, Mister Neil. You boys in the meedja been spreading all kinds of lies about my brother Jeb. And some of those ain't true. For a start, I say, whatever you say, he definitely does have the clap." Bush frowned. "I mean, he definitely doesn't. Please."

"We actually said earlier that, er, Mr Bush is not suffering from gonnorhea, Mr Bush. You may rest assured of that. But about the Conservative Party..."

"Yeah. Come with me. Walk and talk." George W. Bush walked away, the surprised cameraman following him, into an art studio that - improbably - was right next to the hospital ward. "Now what were you sayin'?"

"Uh - what do you have to say about the Conservatives' performance tonight?"

Bush frowned. "Well, I know you guys want to say this was a surprise. I say, we were ready for any and all unforeseen events that may or may not occur. If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure. Let me tell you, this party shouldn't be misunderestimated."

"...and...er...what about the fusion with the Constitution Party in some states, what do you think of that?"

"We're working with our friends and allies on that," Bush said dismissively. "I hope we get to the bottom of the answer. Now, lemme see..."

He sat down at a partially-complete canvas and began working. It depicted a modern battle in a desert scene, with tanks and jets clashing. "What were you saying?"

"I...er..." Neil abandoned his plans. "Is that a depiction of the Iraq War you're painting there, Mr Bush?"

"Darn straight," Bush said, dabbing at it with his paintbrush. "I think war is a dangerous place."

"Er..." Neil went for the plunge. "And do you now concede that the Iraq War was a mistake?"

Bush gave a weary look to the camera. "Now, you know," he said in a suddenly softer voice. "There ain't no mistakes. Just happy accidents." He began painting a mushroom cloud in the background. "Now, let's paint a happy little bomb here..."

"Ahem," Neil said desperately, "what else do you paint here, Mr Bush?"

Bush finished the cloud and put the canvas aside. "Well, no disrespect to Barry Obammer, but I think the interweb's gone right downhill under him being in the White House," he said. "Old Al might claim to have invented it, Bill had his hampsterdance and his All Your Base, but what's Barry got? Old people on Facebook? Charlie Sheen autotunes? Those damnfool rage comics where everyone says derp all the time? That dog that's on fire that thinks everything's fine? Nobody thinks a dog being on fire is fine. Except Mitt Romney."

"Uh..."

"No, sir." Bush shook his head seriously. "No, my time was the peak for internets culture, history will say so." He gestured to a set of paintings. "So I'm daubing representations of some of those triumphs during my presidency. Look here. Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny - Mr Rogers in a bloodstained sweater. Windows Media Player skins that look like a green cyborg face. Big montage of webcomics where everyone's an anthropomorphised animal or an edited Mega Man pixel art sprite for no adequately explained reason. Homestar Runner riding a badger holding a mushroom into a snake. RealPlayer update popups. That's the cover art of The Immortal - the first video Let's Play, before that got RUINED by the mainstream..."

"Er..." Neil said, trying to get things back on track. "And what about that one facing against the wall, Mr Bush? The one with the text on the back - I think it says 'goats'?"

Bush proudly turned the painting around. "Now that's what I call a major-league asshole."

Mercifully, the feed cut out.

	WI-01		
	Cst          	95,080    	26.7%
	Prog          	82,377    	23.1%
	Lib          	68,059    	19.1%
	Nat          	60,412    	17%
	Con          	31,879    	9%
	All          	18,153    	5.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	355,961
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			Lib

"Er...thank you to former President Bush for that...memorable interview." (Huskily) "Please let's get back to some results."

"Well, we have Wisconsin's first district here - another different colour splash on our map, because here the Constitution Party tops the poll."

"That's the south-eastern district, isn't it...and there was something else about it..."

"Yes, this is - I should say was - the home district of Paul Ryan, who was Mitt Romney's vice-presidential candidate in 2012. Now Mr Ryan was the Conservative candidate, so he has lost his seat - in fact he has come last, other than the Alliance. A great disappointment for him no doubt."

"Let's interview him too and rub it in - I doubt he has so many annular paintings."

"Quite. We'll get Emily on that, I think."

	IA-01		
	Lib          	89,749    	23%
	Prog          	86,786    	22.2%
	Cst          	71,551    	18.3%
	Nat          	60,076    	15.4%
	Con          	58,783    	15%
	All          	23,989    	6.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	390,934
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Cst

"Another new state reporting. This is Iowa's first district."

"Yes. Iowa is a farming state, and one of the few in America where the law basically forces relatively sensible district boundaries. There are four districts and the state is basically divided into quadrants. This is the north-eastern one. Politically speaking, the state has quite a diversity of opinions - being a rural farming state would usually favour the right, but various economic events in the 1980s tended to help the left."

"Of course, Iowa was also formerly noteworthy for being the first state to hold a presidential primary, or rather caucus, in the season. Some of that early focus and indecision seems to have carried on, as all the parties are quite close in terms of support. But it's the Liberals, Progressives and Constitution Party who just about come out on top, taking the three seats."

	MO-07		
	Cst          	120,740   	35.3%
	Nat          	86,692    	25.3%
	Prog          	50,032    	14.6%
	Lib          	34,387    	10.1%
	Con          	33,258    	9.7%
	All          	16,961    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	342,069
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Cst

"Back to Missouri and another very right-wing district, but this one has the Constitution Party on top..."

"Yes, it's geographically in the south-west of the state, which is the part culturally most similar to the right-wing western states like Kansas. But I wouldn't be surprised if we see quite a lot of different colours in Missouri. And speaking of which, a map..."



"The right definitely looks favoured in those three states thus far, but we shall see."

	MI-05		
	Lib          	86,713    	26.5%
	Prog          	76,249    	23.3%
	Nat          	66,632    	20.3%
	Con          	42,786    	13.1%
	Cst          	39,553    	12.1%
	All          	15,639    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	327,573
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Nat

"Quite different in Michigan's fifth district, where the Liberals take the first seat, followed by the Progressives and then the Nationals."

"Yes, this district includes the city of Flint, which according to its tourist brochure I have here, is a popular spa destination for the hydrophobes of the world...and the cholera bacterium. Wait, what-"

	MS-02		
	Lib          	160,826   	55.6%
	Nat          	55,047    	19%
	Cst          	30,750    	10.6%
	Prog          	24,382    	8.4%
	Con          	14,437    	5%
	All          	3,827     	1.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	289,269
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Nat

"Down to the Deep South now, and Mississippi's second district, in the west of the state, which follows the titular river-"

"-don't make me try to pronounce it-"

"-and is another one that was gerrymandered to put most of the BAME voters in one district. In this case, however, the Liberals don't quite get all three seats as we've seen in some other places - the Nationals get enough votes to just about take the third seat."

"Yes, the fact that a formerly ignored minority in a district is getting representation now...it does work both ways, doesn't it?"

	AL-04		
	Nat          	114,137   	39.3%
	Con          	73,991    	25.5%
	Cst          	45,534    	15.7%
	Lib          	38,975    	13.4%
	Prog          	11,747    	4%
	All          	6,342     	2.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	290,726
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Con
			Nat

"And in neighbouring Alabama, a very right-wing district in the north...even if the Nationals hadn't got the third seat, it would have gone to the Constitution Party instead. In fact, by some metrics it was formerly the most Republican district in the United States."

"Striking perhaps that its votes have gone more to Mr Trump's National Party than to the Conservatives, then. Perhaps we should have asked Mr B-"

"NO WE SHOULDN'T HAVE."

	IL-07		
	Lib          	166,500   	53.7%
	Prog          	104,600   	33.7%
	Con          	14,320    	4.6%
	All          	10,479    	3.4%
	Nat          	8,805     	2.8%
	Cst          	5,456     	1.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	310,159
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"Illinois' seventh district, another one taking in much of Chicago's centre...the Liberals are in first but, again, one seat goes to the Progressives."

"Let's update our Illinois map and see how many colours we have on that one..."



"Every colour except Conservative red...and Alliance yellow, of course."

"Yes, it does seem unlikely we're going to see the latter, but perhaps when we get to New Mexico, Gary Johnson's home state...we'll see."

	MI-09		
	Prog          	93,690    	26.3%
	Lib          	89,395    	25.1%
	Nat          	70,511    	19.8%
	Con          	59,422    	16.7%
	Cst          	25,664    	7.2%
	All          	17,069    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	355,751
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Nat

"Michigan's ninth district, to the west of Detroit and taking in surrounding towns such as Troy...the Progressives in the lead over the Liberals once more, but the third seat goes to the Nationals."

	AR-02		
	Lib          	93,596    	30.5%
	Con          	58,161    	18.9%
	Cst          	53,543    	17.4%
	Nat          	49,078    	16%
	Prog          	34,287    	11.2%
	All          	18,309    	6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	306,974
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Con
			Cst

"Back to Arkansas. This district takes in the state capital, Little Rock."

"What happened to-"

"Everyone has already done that joke. Anyway, this whole area had been trending away from the Democrats, but it looks like - whether it's Mrs Clinton's personal vote from her husband's time as Governor here, or just a divided right - the Liberals take the first seat. Unusually, the Conservatives and Constitution Party beat the Nationals to getting a seat themselves."

	MS-03		
	Lib          	100,424   	31.3%
	Nat          	97,445    	30.4%
	Cst          	69,987    	21.8%
	Con          	27,992    	8.7%
	Prog          	18,684    	5.8%
	All          	6,218     	1.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	320,750
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Nat
			Cst

"And a similar case in Mississippi, where the third district - which favoured the Republicans under the old system - is actually won by the Liberals in first, with the other two seats going to the Nationals and the Constitution Party this time."

"That's our last Mississippi result - only four seats - so we can calculate the top-up statewide seats..."

	Mississippi at-large		
	Lib          	402,603   	33.5%
	Nat          	338,836   	28.2%
	Cst          	255,178   	21.2%
	Con          	98,801    	8.2%
	Prog          	82,528    	6.9%
	All          	23,512    	2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,201,458
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"Well. As we were saying. That same effect that's happened in some districts has also happened across the whole state here. A divided right and a united left - mostly - mean that Mississippi's statewide vote, which was considered solidly Republican under the old system, now goes to the Liberals. Both top-up seats go to Mrs Clinton's party."

"Perhaps a relief to the Liberals after the Nationals have captured several statewide seats, as we've seen...no final map yet, as we're still waiting on the last Alabama result..."

 

[Thande]

"Let's see if we can't get those states completed before we go to the next guest..."

	WI-07		
	Nat          	100,404   	27.1%
	Cst          	84,236    	22.8%
	Prog          	79,657    	21.5%
	Lib          	58,217    	15.7%
	Con          	28,827    	7.8%
	All          	18,500    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	369,841
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Prog

"More political diversity in Wisconsin. This large, rural district in the north-west gives a seat each to the Nationals and the Constitution Party, but interestingly, the Progressives take third."

"The rural Midwest was one of the historical strongholds of the original Progressive movement, from a century ago. Perhaps we are now seeing the release of a rural voice on the left that takes a very different form from the urban one which has grown more dominant within the Democrats, and is now expressed in the Liberals."

	IL-01		
	Lib          	148,012   	45.4%
	Prog          	97,896    	30%
	Nat          	33,160    	10.2%
	Con          	18,985    	5.8%
	Cst          	17,811    	5.5%
	All          	10,312    	3.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	326,175
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"But, of course, this isn't to say that we haven't seen substantial Progressive support in the cities too. This first district in Illinois takes in much of the South Side of Chicago, then spirals out to a place called Joliet."

"This is a BAME majority district, and where President Obama formerly lived, as it happens."

	LA-05		
	Lib          	87,631    	27.1%
	Nat          	86,547    	26.8%
	Cst          	80,244    	24.8%
	Con          	38,467    	11.9%
	Prog          	22,628    	7%
	All          	7,892     	2.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	323,409
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Nat
			Cst

"Back to Louisiana, and the fifth district follows the Mississippi river, on the other bank from the Mississippi...state, I mean...district we just saw. A narrow lead for the Liberals, but two seats go to the right, the Nationals and Constitution Party respectively."

"Both seem to have more support here than the Conservatives, unlike some of the other states we've seen recently...well, some."

	WI-08		
	Cst          	100,507   	27.2%
	Nat          	82,259    	22.3%
	Prog          	82,008    	22.2%
	Lib          	60,669    	16.4%
	Con          	24,854    	6.7%
	All          	19,265    	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	369,562
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Prog

"Wisconsin again, this time with a purple splash on the map. The eighth district is in the northeast of the state, on the coast of Lake Michigan. In fact the central settlement is Green Bay, best known for its American football team, the Green Bay Packers."

"...what exactly do they pack?"

"Meat, originally. Look it up."

"I will, while we update the map."



"I thought you just did that...anyway, once again, every colour on the map except red. And yellow."

	AR-03		
	Con          	61,467    	21%
	Nat          	60,898    	20.8%
	Cst          	58,556    	20%
	Lib          	49,055    	16.8%
	Prog          	40,026    	13.7%
	All          	22,161    	7.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	292,163
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Nat
			Cst

"Arkansas' third district is in the northwest of the state, and was formerly represented by Yorkshire comedian Steve Womack. Have you heard the one about how the Luftwaffe bombed Attercliffe continuously for six years during the war, and did eight quid's worth of damage?"

"...I think that may be a different Steve Womack. Also he's been re-elected, as he was the Conservative candidate."

"Unlike Paul Ryan. In fact this is a rare case of the three seats going to all three right-wing parties, but the Conservative being in the lead. People must really like his jokes about doing a wee in the sink."

"I - let's move on."

	IL-12		
	Nat          	75,668    	24%
	Lib          	66,106    	20.9%
	Cst          	64,982    	20.6%
	Prog          	60,711    	19.2%
	Con          	33,043    	10.5%
	All          	15,336    	4.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	315,846
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Cst

"Illinois' twelfth district is in the southwest of the state, just over the border from the city of Saint Louis in Missouri."

"Yes, there used to be a bit of an ancestral Democratic vote here, but it's been trending away for a while, and the district was consideredb asically even under the old political landscape. Here, it's once again closely divided - the Nationals take the lead, but it's quite a fight between the Liberals, Constitution Party and Progressives for the remaining two seats."

	WI-03		
	Prog          	98,901    	27.5%
	Nat          	76,315    	21.2%
	Cst          	72,313    	20.1%
	Lib          	62,098    	17.3%
	Con          	28,544    	7.9%
	All          	21,384    	5.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	359,555
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Nat
			Cst

"Another of the unusual combinations we've seen in Wisconsin. This western district covers a big part of what is known as the Driftless Area..."

"That feels vaguely insulting but I can't say exactly why."

"It's to do with the lack of drumlins."

"Oh, I do hope they at least used anaesthetic."

"...anyway, this was another even district under the old landscape, so certainly not one that any party would ever fail to stand a candidate for and then not have a hope of winning even as their presidential candidate actually won its votes," (cough) "but under the new system, the Progressives are in the lead, but the other two seats go to the Nationals and Constitution Party, with the Liberals losing out."

"Another example of rural progressivism perhaps, though there are some sizeable towns in the district.

	AL-02		
	Nat          	84,679    	29.6%
	Lib          	81,885    	28.7%
	Con          	62,428    	21.9%
	Cst          	38,398    	13.4%
	Prog          	12,414    	4.3%
	All          	5,859     	2.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	285,664
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Con

"And that's the final district from Alabama - a narrow National win over the Liberals, with the Conservatives in third. Still a better performance for them than in many states tonight."

"Which means we can issue the statewide top-up seats too..."

	Alabama		
	Lib          	584,495   	27.8%
	Nat          	575,938   	27.4%
	Con          	463,821   	22.1%
	Cst          	278,496   	13.3%
	Prog          	145,052   	6.9%
	All          	53,858    	2.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,101,660
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"Well, that's a shock. Alabama, a state which has been firmly in the hands of the right for many years, just narrowly gives the Liberals the lead over the Nationals."

"With a plurality of barely more than one-quarter of the vote...but some in Congress wanted a winner bonus, and they've got one. Maybe not benefiting the party they wanted, though.

"Let's look at the final map..."



"Quite remarkable. In Mississippi the Liberals topped the vote in two out of four districts and won the statewide popular vote - not too far-fetched, perhaps. But in Alabama..."

"Just one of the districts had a Liberal lead. Yet the Liberals had enough strength elsewhere, while the Nationals and Conservatives fought over the right-wing vote and the Progressives were not in contention...across the state, they take the win."

"There will be some angry people in the Deep South tonight. Good thing they don't have a history of political violence and can easily obtain firearms, eh?"

"...can we go back to the Midwest please?"

 

[Thande]

"I - your wish is my command."

	MI-01		
	Nat          	88,606    	24.3%
	Prog          	80,720    	22.2%
	Con          	65,799    	18.1%
	Cst          	56,418    	15.5%
	Lib          	52,517    	14.4%
	All          	20,072    	5.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	364,131
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Prog
			Con

"Michigan's first district has now reported. This district is in the uttermost north of the state and takes in the entirety of the geographically separated Upper Peninsula or UP - whose inhabitants are known as 'Yoopers'-"

"Now come on, you totally just made that up."

"-and also a bit of the northern mainland. It includes the town of Sault Ste. Marie, the centre of the known universe. Anyway, another very divided result, with the Conservatives just snagging the third seat, not far ahead of both the Constitution Party and the Liberals. But, as we've seen in much of Michigan outside of Detroit - the top two parties jockeying for position seem to be the Nationals and Progressives."

	LA-02		
	Lib          	200,006   	60.3%
	Prog          	47,484    	14.3%
	Nat          	32,260    	9.7%
	Cst          	21,127    	6.4%
	Con          	20,392    	6.1%
	All          	10,433    	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	331,702
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Lib

"Los Angeles' second - I mean, Louisiana's second district, that's a confusing abbreviation - anyway, this one was gerrymandered to pack in most of the old Democratic voters in the city of New Orleans and part of Baton Rouge...it's a BAME majority district and here all three seats are delivered to the Liberals in a fairly overwhelming landslide."

"Whereas the districts gerrymandered to yield a small Republican majority, which was all they needed to win under FPTP, are now divided by the more mixed demographics?"

"Now you're getting it!"

	MI-14		
	Lib          	170,362   	53.4%
	Prog          	82,025    	25.7%
	Con          	27,874    	8.7%
	Nat          	20,578    	6.5%
	Cst          	9,726     	3.1%
	All          	8,185     	2.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	318,751
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"And back up to Michigan, this is the fourteenth district, taking in a zigzag piece of Detroit...almost as good for the Liberals as the New Orleans one we just saw, but the Progressives managed to take the third seat."

	MO-04		
	Cst          	92,646    	27.2%
	Nat          	91,695    	26.9%
	Prog          	55,918    	16.4%
	Lib          	43,926    	12.9%
	Con          	37,821    	11.1%
	All          	18,283    	5.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	340,290
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Prog

"Missouri's fourth district, about halfway in between...large and rural, formerly Republican-dominated, here it's the Constitution Party on top and the National Party in second, with the Progressives actually managing to take the third seat again."

"Yes, it's been assumed to be common knowledge for years to treat these districts as practically lacking left-wing voters, but under the new voting system we can see those minorities...the Progressives seem to be having more success in many rural areas, although the Liberals weren't that far off either - ahead of the Conservatives, in fact."

	IL-14		
	Prog          	89,701    	26.1%
	Nat          	65,589    	19.1%
	Lib          	64,288    	18.7%
	Con          	55,053    	16%
	Cst          	46,706    	13.6%
	All          	22,080    	6.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	343,417
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Nat
			Lib

"Back to Illinois for the fourteenth district, which is north-west of Chicago...another win for the Progressives here."

"I understand we'll be able to speak to representatives of both Illinois and Wisconsin, sitting or former governors in fact, soon when Emily Maitlis speaks to them."

"Yes, Scott Walker of Wisconsin and...Pat Quinn of Illinois..." (sotto voce) "who scribbled in 'the people's' before his name in biro?"

"Err...also there's a map."



"Illinois nearly complete there, and again, four different colours on our map - a divided state indeed, just like its neighbours."

	MI-08		
	Prog          	93,988    	25.1%
	Con          	73,288    	19.5%
	Nat          	72,570    	19.4%
	Lib          	70,448    	18.8%
	Cst          	44,033    	11.7%
	All          	20,641    	5.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	374,968
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Con
			Nat

"Another win for the Progressives in Michigan's eighth district, and slightly better news for the Conservatives. This district takes in an area north of Detroit including the whole state capital, Lansing, which like most US state capitals has a population of about twleve people. Oh, and the Nationals just beat out the Liberals to take the third seat."

	WI-05		
	Cst          	135,588   	34%
	Prog          	80,967    	20.3%
	Lib          	67,933    	17%
	Nat          	54,673    	13.7%
	Con          	39,063    	9.8%
	All          	21,036    	5.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	399,261
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			Lib

"Wisconsin's fifth district, west of the city of Milwaukee, and that's a big win for the Constitution Party, but with the two left-wing parties taking the other two seats."

"Wisconsin isn't perhaps the kind of state we might have imagined the Constitution Party performing well in? Katty, your thoughts?"

"Well, these things are complicated, and as we just heard, simplistic state political stereotypes based on treating plurality wins as emblematic of the whole population - those are startting to break down under this new voting system, and we get to see right-wing voters in New England and left-wing voters in the Deep South, for instance. But in this specific case, things have probably been boosted by the fact that Governor Scott Walker, who we just heard about, joined the Constitution Party late in the campaign after initially supporting the Conservatives."

"Yes, well, as we just mentioned, we'll be hearing from Governor Walker shortly."

	IL-04		
	Prog          	100,289   	47.8%
	Lib          	72,085    	34.3%
	Nat          	11,428    	5.4%
	All          	9,750     	4.6%
	Con          	8,877     	4.2%
	Cst          	7,502     	3.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	209,931
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"Well. That is quite a surprising result - a voice in my ear is telling me. Katty, are you still there?"

"Yes, it is. Illinois' fourth district was gerrymandered to link up two majority Hispanic areas of Chicago, as you can now see on Jeremy's map-"

"Bloody hell, that looks like a fossilised pair of tweezers!"

"...yes. Well, earlier I talked to the Progressive organiser Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes about this, and she was keen to refute accusations by the Liberals that Mr Sanders' party was only drawing support from white demographics, arguing that a large number of Hispanic and Lati... - er - I think that's a typo - Hispanic voters like herself were supportive of the Progressive message. And here we see the evidence of this: a majority Hispanic district going for Mr Sanders' Progressives, not Mrs Clinton's Liberals."

"If she's so Progressive, why does she have the name of a conquistador?"

"She also has an asteroid named after her, though, which makes her above criticism. Just look at Lembit Opik."

"I...let's move on."

	IL-08		
	Prog          	78,261    	30.7%
	Lib          	69,971    	27.4%
	Nat          	40,291    	15.8%
	Con          	28,565    	11.2%
	Cst          	24,070    	9.4%
	All          	13,905    	5.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	255,064
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Nat

"Staying with Illinois for the eighth district, taking in more Chicago suburbs. Another impressive performance for the Progressives, almost equalling that last district. The sitting Democratic congresswoman was the Liberal candidate and will now share her seat with two others. This is Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who lost both her legs in the line of duty, and was the first Thai-American elected to Congress."

	MI-12		
	Prog          	111,217   	32.9%
	Lib          	94,721    	28%
	Nat          	48,198    	14.2%
	Con          	44,627    	13.2%
	Cst          	23,915    	7.1%
	All          	15,844    	4.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	338,523
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"A hat-trick win for the Progressives - that's Michigan's twelfth district, which stretches west from Detroit's suburbs to the town of Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan."

"They discovered free radicals in chemistry, you know. And they won't shut up about it. Also the dentistry department looks like a giant concrete bed. Funny old world."

"...yes. That's the last district in Michigan, so we can now give the statewide seats..."

	Michigan		
	Prog          	1,157,786 	24.2%
	Lib          	1,111,053 	23.2%
	Nat          	884,205   	18.5%
	Con          	797,197   	16.6%
	Cst          	598,141   	12.5%
	All          	241,947   	5.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	4,790,329
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Prog

"For the first time since New England, the Progressives - narrowly - won the popular vote across the whole state, and they get the two top-up bonus seats. That's seventeen Progressive seats in Michigan to nine Liberal, eight Conservative and three Constitution. A remarkable victory."

"And remember, only a few hours ago pollsters were claiming that the Liberals had Michigan in the bag. For example, Bernie Porn, of EPIC-MRA..."

"I think you've just said at least four things you're not supposed to say before the watershed."

	MN-05		
	Prog          	177,215   	47.8%
	Lib          	96,187    	25.9%
	Con          	39,581    	10.7%
	All          	28,932    	7.8%
	Cst          	17,228    	4.6%
	Nat          	11,725    	3.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	370,869
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"And it doesn't stop coming! That's a very impressive win for the Progressives in Minnesota's fifth district, which takes in most of the city of Minneapolis itself."

"With all these progressive voters, maybe it's the one place in America that doesn't have a terrible police force that kills black people at random."

"Uh...I'll get back to you on that one. Anyway... I understand we can now go to Emily Maitlis, who's with Scott Walker in Milwaukee."

Cut to Walker stood behind a podium with flags, oddly, as it seemed as though Maitlis was the only one there speaking to him. "Governor Walker, what's your response to the results thus far?"

Walker frowned. "Well, Emily, let me tell you, I was genetically engineered to be the perfect Republican candidate - I have the most generic Republican name, I look good in a suit, my hair could deflect a bullet, I have an acquired immunity to recall elections - so adapting to a multi-party system has been a challenge. And yet," he added, smacking his fist into his other hand, "it is my belief that here, in this great city which invented the water cannon for subduing union protests - look it up - the Constitution Party has shown it has the backing of the American people to govern this country responsibly, within the boundaries and checks and balances set down by a bunch of dudes in wigs two hundred years ago."

As Walker spoke, his podium and chest slowly became obscured as workers kept entering to drop more and more pizza boxes on top of each other. The pizza boxes had Arabic writing on the side and small red flags with white circles and red crescents and stars. Walker looked more and more put out as he continued his prepared speech. "And as for the Nationals' talk of building a wall along the Mexican border - I say, how about building one along the Canadian border? Eh? Eh?"

"Well, that's obviously absurd, Governor Walker," Maitlis said patiently. "Why would you say something so profoundly unserious, when you are trying to persuade people to vote for you?"

"What - but - but - people take Trump seriously when he says stupid shit!" Walker said petulantly. "Honestly, I--stop putting those pizzas there! You tell those Tunisians to stop sending them! Where are my Pinkertons?"

"Sorry sir, I think they're on strike," smirked one of the pizza-wielding workers.

Walker's eyes flashed with anger. "Well let me tell you, this city, this city..."

	WI-04		
	Lib          	120,754   	39.1%
	Prog          	107,472   	34.8%
	Cst          	35,361    	11.5%
	Nat          	17,890    	5.8%
	Con          	14,037    	4.5%
	All          	13,062    	4.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	308,575
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"...has just elected two Liberals and a Progressive," Maitlis calmly interjected. "I would watch out for who they turn that famous water cannon on, Governor."

Off Walker's expression, the screen cut out.

"Well, that was all very interesting. And with that, Wisconsin is also complete..."

	Wisconsin at-large		
	Prog          	781,948   	26.6%
	Cst          	673,858   	22.9%
	Lib          	600,588   	20.4%
	Nat          	499,378   	17%
	Con          	232,048   	7.9%
	All          	153,180   	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,941,000
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Prog

"An even bigger win for the Progressives, albeit with Governor Walker's Constitution Party in second. The Liberals in third, again, against what many pollsters had predicted-"

"Please don't mention any more pollsters."

"Which means Wisconsin has eleven Progressives elected, versus six Constitution Party MCs, five Liberals and four Nationals. No Conservatives at all here, in contrast to neighbouring Michigan."

"Yes, even neighbouring states can be quite politically different - and we shouldn't forget the effect of individuals such as Governor Walker bringing their party machines across to a party with them. I understand later on we'll see a particularly pronounced example of this in some of the Plains States, where the old Republican machines jumped almost wholesale for one of the new parties, but were inconsistent about which one."

"In the meantime, our completed map of Michigan and Wisconsin..."

 

[Thande]

"An impressive result which thoroughly vindicates the fact that Bernie Sanders did, indeed, campaign in Wisconsin."

"...of course he did, what are you talking about?"

"Sorry, just had a bit of a hot flush."

	MN-08		
	Prog          	91,328    	25.4%
	Cst          	70,118    	19.5%
	Con          	63,957    	17.8%
	Nat          	60,703    	16.9%
	Lib          	47,337    	13.2%
	All          	25,909    	7.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	359,353
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Cst
			Con

"That's another result from Minnesota, and we can see similar results to the neighbouring states we've just dealt with. This is the north-east of the state, the Duluth Iron Triangle as some people call it-"

"-who, exactly-"

"-and what we might expect to be a right-wing rural area has historically had a significant left-wing union voice due to the iron mines. But that has been in decline in recent years. An interesting mix, with another strong win for the Progressives and seats for both the Constitution Party and Conservatives - the Nationals and Liberals, who are the two largest parties across the nation as a whole, languish in fourth and fifth place here."

	IL-03		
	Prog          	85,700    	30.1%
	Lib          	71,683    	25.2%
	Nat          	56,620    	19.9%
	Con          	30,988    	10.9%
	Cst          	26,170    	9.2%
	All          	13,808    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	284,970
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Nat

"Illinois' third district, yet another one taking in part of Chicago and extending out to the suburbs. And once again, the Progressives have pulled ahead of the Liberals in at least some parts of the city, something which was certainly not expected."

"But the third seat goes to the Nationals. This is a similar phenomenon to what we've seen the other way around in states whose district boundaries were gerrymandered by Republicans to favour them under FPTP. Here, Democratic gerrymanders designed to produce narrow Democratic victories now allow representation by the right-wing minority - but not in the form of the Conservative Party as we might have predicted, but rather the Nationals."

"H'm. Well, I understand we can speak to former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn about this shortly...but while the final Illinois seats count, I understand we now have something new coming in."

"Yes, as further polls close, states farther west are starting to report. Some are rather small - by population, I mean, geographically many could comfortably swallow the whole map of the UK!"

"I'm sure there's a subreddit about that fetish."

"...what?"

"Nothing. Anyway, you were saying they're small by population."

"...yes. Which means some may only have one district, and will report all at once. Others, such as Texas, are very large - Texas is the second largest state in the whole country by population - and we'll take a long time to get through all their seats."

"Yes, speaking of which, we have our first Texas result now."

"One might almost say, 'Yee-haw'."

"Does that count as racis-"

	TX-08		
	Cst          	103,639   	35.1%
	Nat          	59,544    	20.2%
	Con          	51,422    	17.4%
	Lib          	44,412    	15%
	Prog          	26,120    	8.9%
	All          	9,962     	3.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	295,099
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Cst

"There it is. Texas is generally considered a pretty right-wing state, though of course it's large and diverse and we'll be hearing from more left-wing areas as well tonight."

"Here, however, the eighth district - the north of the city of Houston and the area further north still - certainly lives up to the stereotype. The Constitution Party takes two seats - narrowly snatching the third from the Conservative Party, not either of the left-wing groups - and the Nationals have the other seat."

"Doubtless the American left might say, 'Houston, we have a pr-'"

"Any more of that and we'll play the 'Calamity Clegg' clip again, Jeremy."

"Nooo, anything but that!"

	IL-16		
	Prog          	69,682    	22.3%
	Cst          	67,180    	21.5%
	Nat          	63,517    	20.4%
	Lib          	49,860    	16%
	Con          	42,396    	13.6%
	All          	19,353    	6.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	311,988
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Cst
			Nat

"Back to Illinois once more and we have a very divided district here, with the Progressives just eking out a win ahead of the Constitution Party, but the top three are all very close."

"This district cuts through the state in a sort of wraparound of the whole Chicagoland area, clearly a place where lots of demographics and opinions come together...a microcosm of what we've seen from the Midwest as a whole tonight."

	KS-02		
	Prog          	79,149    	26.8%
	Cst          	76,619    	25.9%
	Con          	47,155    	15.9%
	Nat          	41,225    	13.9%
	Lib          	31,447    	10.6%
	All          	20,062    	6.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	295,657
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Cst
			Con

"Another brand new state is now reporting. Kansas' second district, which takes in most of the urban settlements in Kansas except for their part of Kansas City - long story. Well, this is a surprising result."

"Yes indeed, this is a shock. Kansas is usually considered a very right-wing state, very solidly Republican under the old system, which ultimately goes back to violent troubles almost two hundred years ago. But here - well, we've discussed the fact that the Progressives seem more competitive than the more 'old Democrat continuity' Liberals in rural areas, and this certainly seems to be the case here. The Progressives had topped the polls, although two other seats go to the Constitution Party and the Conservatives. The Nationals, interestingly, are way down in fourth, with the Liberals more expectedly behind them as well. This really is a new political reality."

"One might almost say...we're not in Kansas anymore."

"That is extremely amusing, because it is a reference to a classic film and also a current musical."

"...was that sarcasm?"

"MOVING ON."

	IL-13		
	Prog          	83,562    	26.1%
	Cst          	60,906    	19%
	Lib          	57,979    	18.1%
	Nat          	57,553    	18%
	Con          	40,554    	12.7%
	All          	19,425    	6.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	319,979
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Cst
			Lib

"We've seen an almost unbroken chain of Progressive wins - as well as stronger Constitution performances than we saw earlier tonight - and Illinois' thirteenth district is no exception."

"This is a fairly closely politically balanced district - under the old system, I mean - in the middle of the state, north of Saint Louis. Only one more district in the state to go now, but first, yet another new state is reporting...and this time, there is only one district to report..."

	ND-00		
	Nat          	131,594   	38.9%
	Fus          	85,200    	25.2%
	Prog          	67,030    	19.8%
	All          	27,411    	8.1%
	Lib          	26,728    	7.9%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	337,963
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Prog

"North Dakota. A geographically large state but a small one by population, although it has been growing since the oil boom in the area. It has some diversity, being the state with the largest portion of Norwegian ancestry in the US, as well as being home to a large and significant reservation of the Great Sioux Nation of Indians."

"...are you allowed to say that? Don't you have to say 'Native American'?"

"Apparently most actual, err, Native Americans don't like being called Native Americans and want you to call them Indians."

"Oh good! Does that mean I can still say things like 'what, you mean, actual reds***s with feather headdresses, totem poles, wigwams, buffalos, tomahawks, pipe of peace, grand sachem, head them off at the pass, the cavalry will be here by dawn, look at me fan the hammer of my six shooter while I shoot the floor to make this bad guy dance, three shots of sipping whisky ma'am, well ah do declayuh, this town isn't big enough for the both of us, ride off into the sunset, I grew up in the fifties please let me have this'?"

"...no."

"Oh."

	North Dakota at-large		
	Nat          	131,594   	38.9%
	Fus          	85,200    	25.2%
	Prog          	67,030    	19.8%
	All          	27,411    	8.1%
	Lib          	26,728    	7.9%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	337,963
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Er...and of course, the top-up seats are just the same votes as there is only one district. As I was saying, the fact that the Sioux people were historically Democratic voters appears to have helped the Progressives secure a seat here, but otherwise it's a sweep for the right-wing parties - three Nationals and one Fusionist."

"And," (awkward cough) "I understand that as the final results for Illinois come in, we can now go to Chicago to speak to former Governor Pat Quinn, who is being interviewed by," (blinks) "Emily Maitlis?!"

The screen flickered on to, indeed, show Emily with her microphone, now stood on what appeared to be the roof of the John Hancock Centre. Strapped to one of the white masts protruding from the impressive black trapezoidal tower was a white-haired, wild-eyed man wearing a vest of various red and yellow striped cylindrical objects with a digital timer on the front.

"Mr Quinn," Maitlis began calmly.

"I demand-" Quinn interrupted.

"No, hang on, wait a minute, hold on," Andrew Neil interrupted the interruption impatiently. "Emily, a few minutes ago you were in Milwaukee, how did you get there so fast?"

Maitlis turned to the camera and blinked once, slowly. "As you know, Andrew, my father is a professor of chemistry and former head of department at the University of Sheffield (which has very good graduate outcomes, by the way) and, during his studies, he developed a formula which meant I was born a Tomorrow Person, with the ability to teleport."

Neil drew back from the screen in horror as though avoiding contamination. "But that's - that's impossible!"

"Genetically speaking it's quite simple," Maitlis began authoritatively. "The delta waves of the brain-"

"No, not that!" Neil shook his head. "I mean that you'd go for a reference from an ITV sci-fi series! Have you no shame?!"

"Ahem!" Quinn interrupted them. The cameras swung back to him. "As I was saying - this use of multi-member districts is an outrage, and unless President Obama reverses it in five minutes, I, THE PEOPLE'S PAT, will have my revenge!"

"Blimey, terrorists with Irish names threatening to blow tall buildings up, this takes me back," Neil said almost dreamily. "Someone dub his voice, I'm sure there's a market for that vein of nostalgia by now."

"I'm not bluffing!" Quinn said impatiently. He pulled on a string, only for his vest to disintegrate, revealing that it consisted of several large candy canes and a clock radio. "Dammit! Knew I shouldn't have outsourced this thing to Blagojevich's relatives in Yugoslavia!"

"Mr Quinn, how do you reconcile this act with your commitment to gun control legislation-" Maitlis began.

Quinn shook his head. "Well at least phase II of the campaign was successful," he said. "I did mail teabags to you all, right?"

"Oh, those were from you?" Neil looked worried. "What, did you poison them or something?"

"...no," Quinn said in confusion. "It's just a reference to the Boston Tea P-"

"Why would posting teabags to people ever not be a good thing?" Neil asked in confusion. "I thought that was very kind. Play your cards right and we'll help get your sentence commuted."

Quinn's eyes flashed. "Never that! I am a former Governor of Illinois and I demand the right to go to prison like all the others!" He cut the cords joining him to the mast and pulled on a parachute backpack. "I knew I should've been suspicious when that fortune teller told me my plan has the same chance of failure as the Cubs winning the World Series..." He took a run-up off the roof. "Plan B it is then - I'm going to go to the Italian Consulate and demand they recognise Chicago pizza as pizza. That should start a small war." He jumped off the roof, the parachute ballooning behind him, displaying blue and white stripes and four red six-pointed stars.

"Former Governor Pat Quinn there. Shame we never got to actually ask him about the election, but oh well. What is Chicago pizza anyway?"

"It's a kind of hot quiche."

"Oh, I thought it was those two-pack frozen things from Iceland which look nice but basically just taste of heat and nothing else. My kids love them."

	IL-05		
	Prog          	118,956   	36.5%
	Lib          	110,980   	34%
	Con          	33,881    	10.4%
	Nat          	28,074    	8.6%
	All          	18,031    	5.5%
	Cst          	16,113    	4.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	326,036
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"And, well, that's the final Illinois district declared. Yet another Progressive win, this time pretty much in the heart of Chicago. Not what the pollsters predicted at all."

"So we have the votes from across Illinois now..."

	Illinois at-large		
	Lib          	1,563,576 	28.3%
	Prog          	1,527,153 	27.7%
	Nat          	824,083   	14.9%
	Cst          	679,008   	12.3%
	Con          	642,924   	11.6%
	All          	286,398   	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	5,523,142
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"A disappointment for the Progressives there as they quite narrowly lose out on getting the statewide seats as well."

"But, as you were just saying, no-one expected them to even be in contention. So the seats for Illinois as a whole are 22 to the Liberals, 19 to the Progressives, 8 to the Nationals, 6 to the Constitution Party and just 1 to the Conservatives who, again, were generally expected to be in second place in a state like this. Just look at the map."



"Politics is evolving tonight in realtime. And because the USA is such a large country, voters farther into the interior west of the country, where the polls are still open, might well shift their votes when they see how things are going out east. The Conservatives, for example, might be seen as a lost cause, and people might turn to the Constitution Party as a way to stop the Nationals."

"The Progressives' good performance might also lead to people voting for them out of preference when they previously might have voted Liberal purely to stop the Conservatives, when we thought they would be the top two. But this is speculation..."

 

[Thande]

	NE-01		
	Nat          	95,076    	34.4%
	Fus          	63,553    	23%
	Prog          	59,933    	21.7%
	Lib          	40,097    	14.5%
	All          	17,387    	6.3%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	276,046
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Fus
			Prog

"We have yet another new state now reporting, Nebraska...the first district, in the middle east of the state - er, not that sort of Middle East - wrapping around the biggest city of Omaha - you know, as in D-Day."

"Now in some ways Nebraska is similar to neighbouring Kansas - a farming-dominated Plains state with generally right-wing politics. Nebraska is also known for a historical rural progressive movement, small-p I mean, which is manifested in such things as the state government only having one house of its legislature, and that being non-partisan, formally no parties."

"However, we can see that these results are quite radically different to those we've seen from Kansas - well, except that the Progressives, capital P, have secured a seat. Katty, can you explain?"

"To an extent. While Mr Obama's reforms are intended to give the United States a level playing field for the parties - eliminating past issues such as unequal air time and lack of limits on campaign spending - what he could not control was that the former Democratic and Republican party organisations or 'machines' in each state are separate - I mean, each state's version of the party is separate - and they do have not moved collectively as one to the new party landscape. We've already seen that with how some states have separate Conservative and Constitution Party slates running, while in others, such as Nebraska here, the parties have settled on a single Con-Con Fusion slate. In almost every state, the vast majority of the old Democratic party organisation has shifted wholesale to the Liberals, which is why many are expressing surprise at how well the Progressives are performing on the left, against the odds. But things are much more uneven on the right with the old Republicans. While many of the most senior party leadership people went to the Conservatives - who have generally underperformed tonight - some, such as Scott Walker who Emily spoke to a short time ago, have backed Mr Cruz's Constitution Party, rejecting Mr Obama's reforms altogether. And a few, such as Chris Christie of New Jersey, have gone over to Mr Trump's Nationals, despite them being largely treated as beyond the pale by the mainstream Republicans."

"But what about Kansas versus Nebraska?"

"Well, in Kansas many prominent local Republicans have gone over to the Constitution Party, while Nebraska is one of a number of Plains states where Mr Trump's Nationals have, unexpectedly, captured a significant part of the existing state party leadership. That does make a difference to how local voters perceive the parties - this is a political culture in which individual endorsements for parties by 'big beasts', as in for individual candidates within parties in the old primary system, has historically swayed many voters. Very unlike how we would normally view multi-party politics, but a uniquely American twist on the concept."

"I see. Fascinating."

	AR-04		
	Nat          	68,559    	25.3%
	Lib          	60,286    	22.3%
	Cst          	59,796    	22.1%
	Con          	45,376    	16.8%
	Prog          	24,556    	9.1%
	All          	12,207    	4.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	270,781
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Cst

"That's the fourth and final district in Arkansas, in the southwest of the state. This one historically elected conservative Democrats in the big-tent party days. Here you can see it's backing the right, in the form of a National and a Constitution candidate, but the Liberals have still secured one as well - whereas it was seeming as though the Democrats were getting shut out altogether under Mr Obama."

"That also means we can give the results for the statewide seats..."

	Arkansas at-large		
	Lib          	259,890   	23%
	Nat          	254,398   	22.5%
	Cst          	216,358   	19.1%
	Con          	214,116   	18.9%
	Prog          	120,604   	10.7%
	All          	65,269    	5.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,130,635
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"So a win for the Liberals, despite the state's shift to the right as you mentioned. A close result, and perhaps guaranteed only by the presence of former Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton as party leader?"

"I'm not sure if she's still as popular there to be honest, Andrew, but the Liberals have definitely benefited from a very divided right in the state, whereas rather fewer left-wing voters have backed the Progressives."

	TX-31		
	Lib          	67,325    	23.4%
	Cst          	58,936    	20.5%
	Con          	55,350    	19.3%
	Prog          	49,856    	17.3%
	Nat          	39,537    	13.8%
	All          	16,506    	5.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	287,510
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Con

"That's our second result from Texas. As you can see from the high district number, it has a great many of them."

"Thirty-six, in fact. This one, north of the city of Austin, was represented by John Carter-"

"What, as in the bloke who went to Mars, or the other one?"

"One of the other ones. It was formerly a Republican district but, as we've just seen in Arkansas, a divided right has given the lead to the Liberals - with the Constitution Party in second place and the Conservatives in third."

	MN-02		
	Prog          	99,777    	26.4%
	Con          	80,481    	21.3%
	Lib          	71,510    	18.9%
	Cst          	56,433    	14.9%
	Nat          	38,894    	10.3%
	All          	30,793    	8.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	377,887
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Con
			Lib

"And back up to Minnesota for the second district, south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis - which we saw a short while ago - and St Paul. We've actually not seen that many districts with both Conservatives and Liberals elected, after the expectation during the campaign that that would be the norm with them as the top two...regardless, the Progressives have taken another win in the Midwest."

"We can also look at how Minnesota and its southern neighbour Iowa are shaping up on the map."



"Already three colours on that map, and as we saw in Michigan and Wisconsin, I suspect there will soon be more."

	LA-06		
	Cst          	93,876    	26.4%
	Nat          	89,888    	25.3%
	Lib          	81,025    	22.8%
	Con          	46,936    	13.2%
	Prog          	29,371    	8.3%
	All          	14,856    	4.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	355,951
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Lib

"We also have Los An - dammit - Louisiana's sixth district. This one includes most of the state capital of Baton Rouge and, um, squiggly bits. A win for the Constitution Party here, with the Nationals in second, but the Liberals also secure a seat in what used to be a pro-Republican gerrymander."

	IA-02		
	Lib          	89,554    	23.6%
	Prog          	81,242    	21.4%
	Cst          	66,833    	17.6%
	Nat          	61,732    	16.2%
	Con          	57,819    	15.2%
	All          	22,779    	6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	379,959
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Cst

"Another result from Iowa - I could have waited to update the map - and this one is also in the east of the state, with a very similar result to the first district which we already saw."

	MN-03		
	Prog          	107,203   	27%
	Lib          	94,630    	23.8%
	Con          	87,003    	21.9%
	Cst          	44,373    	11.2%
	Nat          	32,883    	8.3%
	All          	30,916    	7.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	397,008
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Con

"And another similar result to others we've seen too, but this time in Minnesota, in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. Yet another Progressive win, with the Conservatives continuing to show they are more competitive in Minnesota than some other states we've seen."

"This was predicted, with the more moderate - or so we're told - Conservatives appealing more to the right-wing minority in generally leftier-of-centre like Minnesota - yet tonight, this has been the exception rather than the rule. Look at how the Nationals performed in New England."

	SD-00		
	Nat          	152,808   	41.3%
	Fus          	74,923    	20.2%
	Lib          	59,908    	16.2%
	Prog          	57,558    	15.6%
	All          	24,914    	6.7%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	370,111
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat
			Fus

"Speaking of the Nationals, we now have the results from South Dakota, which you will be unsurprised to hear is North Dakota's southern neighbour, and the Nationals have captured two of the three seats in this state's single district, with the third going to the Fusionists."

"South Dakota is of course known for Mount Rushmore and...um...does anyone remember George McGovern...er, that's it."

"For those who do remember him, McGovern was a very left-wing Democratic presidential candidate from the state who lost badly to Richard Nixon in 1972. But clearly he was not typical of voters in his state. As with North Dakota, a single declaration means we can see the statewide seats awarded off the same results:"

	South Dakota at-large		
	Nat          	152,808   	41.3%
	Fus          	74,923    	20.2%
	Lib          	59,908    	16.2%
	Prog          	57,558    	15.6%
	All          	24,914    	6.7%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	370,111
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"So overall, four out of five seats in this state for the National Party, a thumping win for Mr Trump's supporters and a worry for the other right-wing parties" (sotto voce) "and, um, everyone sane."

"Here's a map. Be warned, it's a big one, even though fewer people live in the confines of this map than live in the whole of Scotland. Or Yorkshire."



"Yes, probably best not to update that one again till we have all the results..."

	TX-04		
	Cst          	94,650    	33.9%
	Nat          	63,524    	22.8%
	Con          	52,413    	18.8%
	Lib          	40,754    	14.6%
	Prog          	20,087    	7.2%
	All          	7,760     	2.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	279,188
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Con

"Another Texas result, in a much more populous state of course! This one's in the north-east of the state, and you can see it's a very right-wing area, with all three right-wing parties winning seats."

"The Constitution Party easily in first, though. As a reminder, Mr Cruz, the party's leader, was a sitting Texas Senator, and appears to be drawing home-state loyalty for his new party."

	IA-04		
	Cst          	88,371    	23.3%
	Con          	71,694    	18.9%
	Nat          	71,165    	18.7%
	Lib          	63,886    	16.8%
	Prog          	63,515    	16.7%
	All          	21,270    	5.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	379,900
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Con
			Nat

"That's a similar result to the one we just saw in Texas - but very different to the other ones we saw in Iowa! Can you explain, Katty?"

"This shows you the dichotomy of Iowa, very divided and diverse in terms of political opinions if not ethnicity. In this district, to the west of the two that have already reported, the right-wing pluralities are just that little bit higher to shut out the left."

"Interesting."

	LA-04		
	Lib          	91,302    	28.7%
	Cst          	84,443    	26.5%
	Nat          	73,889    	23.2%
	Con          	34,645    	10.9%
	Prog          	25,297    	7.9%
	All          	8,887     	2.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	318,462
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Nat

"Back to Louisiana, and the fourth district, in the west of the state...it's the same story we've seen before. Another Republican-gerrymandered district under the old system now puts the Liberals in first as they secure most of the left-wing vote, while the more divided right does get two seats for the Constitution Party and Nationals, in this case, but runs the risk of the Liberals getting the popular-vote win across the state."

"Yes, it's not completely unheard of for Democrats still to have won in Louisiana under the old system, such as the recent gubernatorial victory by former Senator for Corellia, Garm Bel Iblis-"

"I think you mean John Bel Edwards."

"Oh yes, I always get those two mixed up. Anyway, yes, it wasn't unheard of, but this will still be a shake-up for Louisiana politics."

"I think this election is a shake-up for politics everywhere!"

"True. Perhaps even beyond the USA's borders."

	OK-04		
	Cst          	77,922    	26.4%
	Nat          	59,434    	20.1%
	Con          	56,805    	19.2%
	Prog          	50,317    	17%
	Lib          	33,331    	11.3%
	All          	17,655    	6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	295,464
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Con

"And speaking of which, yet another new state. Tell us about Oklahoma, Katty."

"Yes, Oklahoma is much more than a musical with an exclamation mark. Not many people know this in the UK, but it's actually home to a large part of the country's displaced Nativ Am...India...indigenous people. Even the state name means 'Red People'."

"I thought you said I wasn't allowed to-"

"ANYWAY, Oklahoma has shifted drastically to the Republicans in recent years, under the old system, I mean, and this district, in the south-central of the state, is no exception. Supporting going to all three right-wing parties, once again."

"Hmm. Do you think there's a left-wing minority there still, in other districts perhaps, which will still get representation under this voting system?"

"Only time will tell."

	IA-03		
	Prog          	97,004    	24.1%
	Lib          	84,520    	21%
	Con          	70,537    	17.5%
	Cst          	64,282    	15.9%
	Nat          	60,921    	15.1%
	All          	25,927    	6.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	403,191
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Con

"That's our last result from Iowa, and very different once again!"

"Yes, that western character, maybe, gave the Progressives a slight lead over the Liberals...but unlike the other western district we saw, the left are still ahead of the right."

"We can also give the statewide seats of course..."

	Iowa		
	Prog          	328,547   	21.1%
	Lib          	327,709   	21.1%
	Cst          	291,036   	18.7%
	Con          	258,832   	16.7%
	Nat          	253,894   	16.3%
	All          	93,965    	6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,553,984
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Prog

"Well. That's an extremely narrow win, on an extremely narrow plurality, for the Progressives to take yet more top-up seats in a Midwest state."

"Yes, I fully expect calls for a recount. For now, however, it looks like Mr Sanders' party has done it again, despite only leading in one out of the four districts."

	MO-05		
	Lib          	94,019    	28.6%
	Prog          	83,753    	25.5%
	Cst          	52,642    	16%
	Nat          	51,664    	15.7%
	Con          	29,151    	8.9%
	All          	17,573    	5.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	328,803
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Cst

"And to the south, in Missouri, this district, which takes in a lot of Kansas City-"

"I thought you said it was in Missouri?"

"Please don't ask or we'll be here all night. Anyway, a lead for the Liberals as we've generally seen in urban areas, but with the Progressives and, unusually, the Constitution Party also taking seats. Let's have a map update."



"Again, what a diversity of opinion we're seeing - every single party colour, except Alliance yellow of course, represented across these three states."

	WY-00		
	Cst          	130,172   	52.3%
	Con          	31,395    	12.6%
	Prog          	31,177    	12.5%
	Lib          	24,796    	10%
	All          	18,553    	7.5%
	Nat          	12,852    	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	248,945
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst
			Cst

"Hmm, I didn't expect this one to come in so soon...but Wyoming on the Plains, the smallest state by population but, again, very large and very rectangular by geographic area, has now declared. And that's a whopping landslide for the Constitution Party!"

"Yes, that's the first time the Constitution Party have secured all three seats in a district, I think, with more than half of the votes cast. I presume Wyoming is one of the states where the local Republican party leadership went across wholesale to the Constitution Party."

"Correct. It's still a surprisingly overwhelming result, though, even in what was already known as a very right-wing state. Wyoming was actually the first place in the US to give women the vote, although, er, you'd never guess it from that result."

"We can also show the top-up seats, and those are no surprise..."

	Wyoming		
	Cst          	130,172   	52.3%
	Con          	31,395    	12.6%
	Prog          	31,177    	12.5%
	Lib          	24,796    	10%
	All          	18,553    	7.5%
	Nat          	12,852    	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	248,945
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst

"So five full Constitution seats out of a single small state."

	TX-01		
	Cst          	97,788    	37.3%
	Lib          	50,143    	19.1%
	Nat          	47,930    	18.3%
	Con          	43,886    	16.7%
	Prog          	16,246    	6.2%
	All          	6,499     	2.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	262,492
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Lib
			Cst

"And two more for the Constitution Party from Texas' first district, which is also in the northeast of the state - though one goes to the Liberals."

	LA-01		
	Nat          	108,552   	30.5%
	Cst          	78,664    	22.1%
	Lib          	58,967    	16.5%
	Con          	57,690    	16.2%
	Prog          	36,203    	10.2%
	All          	16,406    	4.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	356,482
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Lib

"And one more from Louisiana, in the first district, which is split into two parts around the mouth of the Mississ - the Missy - that big river."

"Along with a National and a Liberal. That's the last result from Louisiana, so let's see which party came out on top in the end..."

	Louisiana		
	Lib          	587,158   	28.9%
	Nat          	488,182   	24.1%
	Cst          	447,938   	22.1%
	Con          	242,518   	12%
	Prog          	192,996   	9.5%
	All          	70,240    	3.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,029,032
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"And, as we suspected, the Liberals have taken it thanks to a divided right - with the Nationals in second and the Constitution Party in third. More top-up seats from Deep South states going not to any of the right-wing parties we might have expected, but to Mrs Clinton's Liberals."

"There will be a lot of anger on the right tonight - no change there - and every one of these seats will help in the parliamentary arithmetic of seats when the night is over."

"Yes, speaking of which, I think that's nearly two-thirds of all the seats nationwide declared, so can we have an update on seat numbers?"

327	Lib          	
229	Nat    	
171	Prog        	
91	Con          	
68	Cst        	
29	Fus       	
0	All

"With 915 seats declared out of 1410, we have the Liberals on 327, followed by the Nationals on 229, the Progressives on 171, the Conservatives on 91, the Constitution Party on 68 - still fifth, despite those recent wins we've seen - the Fusionists on 29, whom could be counted with both the Conservatives or Constitution Party - and nothing for the Alliance."

"Though we may soon be coming to the states where the Alliance does have a chance, albeit a slim one, to make it into Parliament..."

 

[Thande]

	MN-07		
	Cst          	78,615    	23.3%
	Con          	74,850    	22.2%
	Prog          	66,084    	19.6%
	Nat          	54,751    	16.2%
	Lib          	38,482    	11.4%
	All          	24,224    	7.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	337,005
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Con
			Prog

"Another result from Minnesota...the seventh district is the largest and takes up pretty much the entire west of the state. Another very divided result, showing the diversity of political opinions here..."

"Yes, shortly we'll be able to go over to, er, Emily Maitlis again once she's returned from the mothership, to discuss the situation there in that state."

"And here's a map update."



"Iowa is completely in now but we're still waiting on some Minnesota results...and perhaps more purple on the map than we might have expected. Mr Cruz's Constitution Party appears to be getting a second wind as we cross the Midwest and the Plains."

	MO-08		
	Nat          	116,403   	36.6%
	Cst          	93,987    	29.6%
	Prog          	33,678    	10.6%
	Lib          	33,180    	10.4%
	Con          	29,275    	9.2%
	All          	11,226    	3.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	317,749
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Nat

"A much more straightforward and conservative mix in Missouri's eighth district...by which I mean right-wing, the Conservatives themselves are well off getting a seat, unlike the Nationals and Constitution Party."

"This was one of the most Republican districts in the nation under the old system; it takes in a big chunk of the south-east of the state."

	MT-00		
	Nat          	220,579   	44.6%
	Prog          	95,718    	19.4%
	Lib          	81,991    	16.6%
	Fus          	58,661    	11.9%
	All          	37,577    	7.6%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	494,526
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat
			Prog

"We also have another result from a state with only one district, in this case the Plains state of Montana...Plains and mountains, that is, as you can tell from the name."

"Just one district, yes, although the census boffins think it may get a second one at the next cycle in the 2020s, judging by its population growth."

"Tsk, spoilers! Anyway, Katty, I believe you said this was one of the states where most of the local Republican organisation went over to the Nationals?"

"Yes, you can tell, can't you - the Constitution Party, which has performed well in similar neighbouring states like Wyoming, relegated to being part of a rather distant Fusion Party result. In fact, the only competition the Nationals have is from Mr Sanders' Progressives, who have secured a seat. Again, not something many would have predicted before tonight; states like Montana are not the uniform right-wing bloc they are often treated as. In fact, Bill Clinton carried the state back in 1992."

	Montana at-large		
	Nat          	220,579   	44.6%
	Prog          	95,718    	19.4%
	Lib          	81,991    	16.6%
	Fus          	58,661    	11.9%
	All          	37,577    	7.6%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	494,526
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"But as far as the top-up seats go, of course, all that matters is the plurality...two more seats for Donald Trump's party."

	MN-01		
	Prog          	87,008    	25.5%
	Con          	74,998    	22%
	Cst          	56,967    	16.7%
	Nat          	49,682    	14.6%
	Lib          	43,823    	12.9%
	All          	28,353    	8.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	340,831
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Con
			Cst

"That's Minnesota's penultimate result. The first district, in the southern part of the state...again, very divided, with seats for Progressives, Conservatives and Constitution Party alike. The Nationals and Liberals, who have dominated most of the country tonight, seem much less successful in Minnesota than elsewhere."

"Yes, well, we can now go to Emily, who may be able to tell us why..."

Cut to Maitlis looking rather cold in what first appeared to be a city street, but as the camera pulled back, a roof was visible. "I'm here at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, what was the world's biggest shopping mall before China decided to go for all the Guinness records. Just why does Minnesota behave so differently to many other parts of the United States? I'm here to talk to ordinary local residents."

Maitlis turned, microphone in hand, to face a small crowd of people, most of whom were partly or fully dressed in mascot costumes with bright orange logo badges. "So what are the reasons for Minnesota's unusual culture, and what impact does that have on its politics?"

"Well, there's the phenomenon known as Minnesota Nice," said a muffled voice through the rugby ball-shaped head of a Hey Arnold costume. "Caring for your neighbour and all that, though some people just say it's enforced social stratification-"

"Hyacinth Bucket would say, what other sort of neighbourly behaviour is there?" Maitlis asked rhetorically. "And what about the demographics?"

"Well, so much of the state's population is descended from Scandinavian immigrants," said a girl playing a young Melissa Joan Hart as Clarissa of 'Explains It All' fame. "A hundred years ago all our politicians had names like 'Hjalmar Eriksson', and they were founding left-wing breakaways like the Farmer-Labor Party, who even recently were still officially named alongside the Democrats as a fusion. Then there was good old Triple H."

"And some people actually connect that to modern Scandinavian social democracy," concluded Krumm from Aaaahh!!! Real Monsters, who was clearly getting rather tired of holding both hands in the air with a baseball-sized prop eyeball in each one. "A commitment to both economic and social progressivism. Very high voter turnout by American, or even global, standards, and almost every election fought as an honest contest on fair boundaries."

"Well, that all sounds very delightful," Maitlis said politely. "Because this is the BBC, I have to ask - is there a downside?"

The mascots and actors considered. "It is true that we tend to compensate for being so nice by, recently, electing complete assholes," admitted pseudo-Alex Mack. "At least since we gave up on professional wrestlers. In fact, look at this montage we've conveniently displayed on a nearby wall of TV screens."

Cut to Michele Bachmann railing at a crowd at a rally. "We cannot allow a lunatic gap!" she warned. "We have to make Barack Obama a one-term president, or else Colorado and Georgia will start electing lunatics who make me look sensible by comparison!" She paused. "Either that or I could go and get a job with the UN, assuming they mix me up with the President of Chile too."

Cut to Amy Klobuchar, apparently giving one of those 90s wonder product advertisements with a blue background and a yellow phone number. "Are you worried your subordinates aren't feeling your authority in the workplace?" she asked with a smile, walking past what appeared to be the board from Family Feud. "Have you tried all the classics? The Brown?" A photo of Gordon Brown, above a photo of a hefty-looking Nokia phone, appeared on the board, only to be crossed out with a red X and the iconic cancel sound. "The Starmer?" The photos were replaced with one of Keir Starmer above a floppy disk, crossed out in turn. "The Clinton?" A photo of the top half of Bill Clinton above a photo of the bottom half of Bill Clinton, pixellated. After a brief hesitation, this was crossed out as well. "Well, worry no more, for I have the solution." Klobuchar walked to an Easy-Bake oven and withdrew a steaming Tower of Hanoi-like pile of concentric cake circles, decorated with white icing. "Here's that good old Minnesota standard, the kransekage. Just serve it up to all your aides and interns." She smiled sweetly. "And if they're been good, I don't put ginger in the recipe before shoving it up their-"

Merciful cut to Al Franken, sitting behind a radio desk with a pleasant smile on his face. "Aren't you glad I'm perfectly nice and have no controversies whatsoever?" he asked. "By the way, have I mentioned it's 2016, though Jon Oliver and Justin Trudeau still aren't quite sure? And while you're here, let's have a heartwarming radio discussion with top author and radio personality, Garrison Keillor-"

The screen faded and returned to Maitlis with the mascots. "Well, at least this multi-party system will give you more options," she suggested. "Not unlike Scandinavia, in fact. But, can I ask..."

"What?" asked Mr Dink from Doug.

Maitlis looked around theatrically. "Where are Linus and Lucy? What happened to Peppermint Patty? Who are you lot, anyway?"

"Oh. It hasn't been Camp Snoopy since the mid-2000s," helpfully explained Danny Phantom. "We seen had a sort of Khmer Rouge Year Zero purge and rebranded as Nickelodeon Universe."

Maitlis drew back in shock, reddening in rage. "Betrayal!" she cried. "You deserve everything Iran does to you?"

"What, you mean, like, orchestrating a terrorist attack?" asked a confused Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

"No," Maitlis clarified, "I mean they should build a bigger mall to beat you to the top spot!"

"That's worse!" declared Jimmy Neutron.

The screen turned to static, and they were soon back to the studio.

"Well, er, thank you Emily for that very interesting report," Andrew Neil said with a pinched expression. "I understand we have yet more results coming in now."

	TX-14		
	Lib          	74,777    	28.4%
	Cst          	71,905    	27.3%
	Nat          	45,478    	17.3%
	Con          	35,808    	13.6%
	Prog          	26,451    	10%
	All          	8,962     	3.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	263,381
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Nat

"Another one from Texas. The fourteenth district is along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, around Galveston. Now this geographic area was once represented by Ron Paul, who is basically like the anthropomorphic personification of all those 'we buy gold' adverts, except with more weed and racism. Mr Paul stood for the Libertarians back in the 80s and was definitely on the Libertarian wing of the Republicans, but that hasn't translated to any success for the Alliance Party. Instead, the Liberals are actually on top, though the other two seats are going to the Constitution Party and the Nationals."

"Let's get a map of Texas."

"Er..."

"Yes, I know how big it is, do it anyway!"



"...alright, I admit that's bigger than I thought."

"So big that I think time zones may even be having an impact on the vote counting schedule, although Texas is strictly all in Central Time. We can clearly see some early success for Mr Cruz's Constitution Party in his home state, but the Liberals are also having more success than the historical Democrats usually have had in recent years - partly because they appear to have kept the left-wing vote more united under their banner here."

	MO-03		
	Nat          	112,791   	29.8%
	Cst          	99,665    	26.3%
	Prog          	58,696    	15.5%
	Lib          	47,668    	12.6%
	Con          	41,727    	11%
	All          	18,299    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	378,846
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Prog

"Missouri's third district is west of Saint Louis, and it's definitely more of a right-wing district, though the Progressives have just about managed to pull out the third seat here."

	TX-36		
	Cst          	90,225    	35.5%
	Nat          	57,349    	22.5%
	Lib          	44,380    	17.4%
	Con          	35,602    	14%
	Prog          	19,845    	7.8%
	All          	7,046     	2.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	254,447
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Cst

"Now this is a more right-wing dominated district in Texas...Texas has thirty-six districts and, well, this is the thirty-sixth, in the southern part of East Texas, which is culturally more similar to the Deep South as opposed to the West. And the results reflect that."

	ID-01		
	Cst          	107,942   	30%
	Nat          	77,897    	21.7%
	Prog          	71,634    	19.9%
	Con          	43,195    	12%
	All          	39,343    	10.9%
	Lib          	19,650    	5.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	359,661
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Prog

"Another new state. The state of Idaho, which together with Montana and Wyoming come together with Yellowstone National Park at the centre. Although we have had a tweet from someone called @fobos-grunt11 in Malmö criticising our description of them all as Plains states, as Idaho is really more Rocky Mountain country."

"Yes, under the old system these states were generally considered politically similar and grouped together, but there's a stark contrast between the three here, even if they all remain firmly on the right. Idaho's first district is the western part of the state, referred to as the 'panhandle' although, unlike Oklahoma and Florida, there is no way that looks anything like one, unless your pans all have vertical handles."

"Historically this was sometimes a slightly better area for the old Democrats than the rest of a pretty right-wing state, and the Progressives have secured a seat here. Also look at the Alliance Party! That's a rare case of them coming ahead of the Liberals. Perhaps the hopes of Mr Johnson and his colleagues are not dashed yet after all."

	MO-01		
	Lib          	145,055   	45.4%
	Prog          	101,052   	31.6%
	Nat          	22,224    	7%
	Cst          	21,223    	6.6%
	Con          	16,689    	5.2%
	All          	13,363    	4.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	319,606
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"That's our last result from Missouri. The first district takes in most of the city of Saint Louis, and as you can see, the Liberals in first but the Progressives not that far behind, and nothing for the right-wing parties - the same pattern we've seen in many other urban centres across the nation."

"That also means we can assign the top-up seats..."

	Missouri		
	Nat          	655,072   	23.4%
	Cst          	647,360   	23.1%
	Lib          	537,347   	19.2%
	Prog          	533,721   	19.1%
	Con          	292,079   	10.4%
	All          	135,870   	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,801,449
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Well. Despite that left-wing district, the highest party is the Nationals - albeit only on a small plurality, and with the Constitution Party not far behind. But that's another two bonus seats to Donald Trump's party..."

"And we can now give our final, filled-out map for Missouri and the states to its south, Arkansas and Louisiana."



"Once again, every colour on that map except yellow...a diversity that's a far cry from how these states used to look. And we still have more to see."

 

[Thande]

	TX-09		
	Lib          	122,663   	64.2%
	Prog          	28,896    	15.1%
	Cst          	14,583    	7.6%
	Con          	10,514    	5.5%
	Nat          	9,350     	4.9%
	All          	5,036     	2.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	191,042
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Lib

"Texas' ninth district, a very urbanised one taking in the southwest of the Houston area...this is a BAME majority district by, er, the American definition of BAME-"

"Is there an American definition of BAME?"

"I mean it's home to about equal numbers of Hispanic and African-American people and they make up more than three-quarters of the population. And the Liberals have captured all three seats."

"Another Republican-created gerrymandering backfire under this new system, it seems."

	CO-04		
	Cst          	153,963   	38.3%
	Prog          	83,752    	20.8%
	Lib          	54,032    	13.4%
	Nat          	51,321    	12.8%
	All          	33,472    	8.3%
	Con          	25,661    	6.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	402,201
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			Cst

"Yet another new state now reporting...the mountain state of Colorado. It's very high up - visitors may find it difficult to breathe - and they also have legalised cannabis, so that John Denver song, 'Rocky Mountain High', really now has a double-"

"Yes, yes, all right, do The Joke."

"Colorado has very mixed politics, tending to have both traditional centre-left progressive voters and right-libertarians. This is the eastern part of the state, a large and rural distric east of the capital of Denver - which, er, is not named after John Denver. i think."

"Not a bad score for the Alliance Party here by their standards elsewhere, outpolling the Conservatives, but it's the Constitution Party who've secured the right-wing representation here."

"Does that make sense? The Constitution Party is socially conservative, hardly libertarian - Katty?"

"There's often more crossover than you'd think - some might say that right-libertarian voters only care about government interference in their own bedrooms, not anyone else's. And the old Constitution Party, the one that's part of the Alliance, nearly won the gubernatorial election here a few years ago - albeit more because a sore-loser Republican used it as a vehicle of convenience. But that name brand recognition might have helped Mr Cruz's party."

"Otherwise, we can also see the progressive tendency we mentioned getting representation here, by, well, the Progressives."

	MN-04		
	Prog          	131,231   	36.1%
	Lib          	92,572    	25.5%
	Con          	60,547    	16.6%
	Cst          	29,660    	8.2%
	All          	28,684    	7.9%
	Nat          	20,956    	5.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	363,650
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"Speaking of the Progressives, they have also secured two seats out of three in our final Minnesota district."

"This one takes in the city of St Paul, which if you'll remember, is part of the 'Twin Cities' with Minneapolis. We are starting to see more and more cases of the Progressives not merely picking up the second or third seat in an urban district, but actually challenging the Liberals for first place."

"Very interesting. And as we have all the results now, we can give the statewide ones too..."

	Minnesota at-large		
	Prog          	836,834   	28.7%
	Con          	569,222   	19.5%
	Lib          	530,882   	18.2%
	Cst          	432,079   	14.8%
	Nat          	321,651   	11%
	All          	226,883   	7.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,917,550
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Prog

"A fairly decisive win for the Progressives there, in terms of margin at least - interestingly, the Conservatives made it into second here, in what was usually considered a reliable Democratic state."

"Only on the presidential level, though - they routinely elected Republicans on other levels of government. It's still surprising that I think, outside of Ohio, this is the Conservatives' best performance we've seen so far in terms of placement, though...I think they were second in Kentucky, but just barely. By contrast, there are many states usually thought of as more right-wing where they're languishing in third or farther behind."

"Certainly, this night has been a surprise on many levels. And we now have our final map for Iowa and Minnesota."



"Another variegated map - plenty of success for the Progressives in this part of the United States, and some for the Constitution Party too."

	TX-24		
	Lib          	77,817    	28.2%
	Con          	52,509    	19%
	Cst          	51,371    	18.6%
	Prog          	45,055    	16.3%
	Nat          	36,248    	13.1%
	All          	13,137    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	276,137
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Con
			Cst

"We'll be getting a barrage of a lot more Texan districts I suspect as the results come in..."

"The twenty-fourth district...well, we heard about Minnesota's Twin Cities, Texas kind of has them too, in the shape of Dallas and Fort Worth. This district slots into the suburbs right between them. The Liberals are in first, but, well, we were just talking about the Conservatives' placement - here they have actually beaten the Constitution Party into second."

"Although we should put this in perspective, because from the polls before tonight we expected them to be the leading right-wing party almost everywhere. Anyway, we shouldn't forget that although Texas is the home state of Constitution Party leader Ted Cruz, it is also home to the Bush dynasty...today, at least, although Jeb Bush became Governor of Florida. Did the endorsement of the two former Presidents Bush help the Conservative Party here?"

"We can actually go back to former President Bush - please get that pixellation censorship ready in case he's painting again, Malcolm - and ask him."

The screen flickered, now displaying a wild-eyed George W. Bush crouched beneath what looked like a hospital trolley, clad in paint-stained overalls. Next to him was a slightly damaged canvas showing a party scene reminiscent in style of the Californian Raisins, but Bush had instead drawn anthropomorphised lemons. "Uh....not got a lot of time right now guys," he said through clenched teeth. In the background, the lights dimmed and screams could be heard.

"President Bush? What's going on?"

Bush grinned nervously. "Well, you see, they wanted to try this experimental treatment on my brother Jeb, but it uses embryonic stem cells, which I'm morally opposed to. So instead I replaced the syringe with one full of guacamole." He winced as there was a loud, metallic crashing sound and more screams. "How was I to know the guac had been sat in the X-ray ward since last Superbowl and was now radioactive?"

"That does seem a tad irresponsible, Mr President," Neil pointed out.

"Hey, I tested it on myself first and didn't see any side effects," Bush protested. He glanced aside and nodded at some empty space. "Ain't that right, Harvey?"

"Ah..."

"But I only used an itty-bitty drop," Bush admitted. "Whereas it seems to have transformed my brother Jeb into..." Another loud crash, as of a locked door being broken out of its frame. "Let's just say, a weapon of mass destruction. And this one is very much real-"

With a final loud explosion, both Bush and the camera view turned to a blur of motion as the camera crew moved to escape with the former president. A few vertigo-inducing blurred shots of hospital corridors later, the feed cut out.

"Well, I'm afraid we've lost George W. Bush there, but we'll get him back as soon as we can. In the meantime, um, look up someone else we can speak to...Fort Worth...maybe find someone who knows about the military and how they voted?"

"OK."

	NM-02		
	Nat          	94,166    	40.2%
	Lib          	50,073    	21.4%
	Prog          	43,290    	18.5%
	All          	23,521    	10%
	Fus          	23,046    	9.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	234,096
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Nat

"Another new state is now reporting, even as the Texas results continue to come in...now New Mexico is a place of potential interest for a number of reasons. It has the largest Native American population in the country by percentage, unless you count Alaska. It also has a very large Hispanic population, in fact it is one of very few places where they are a plurality. It is the state where Gary Johnson was Governor, as a Republican, and where he has tried to appeal most in his new incarnation as a Libertarian and part of the Alliance Party. And finally, it is on the border with Mexico, this southern district in particular is, and is one of the places where Donald Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric has been most directed. What are we seeing here?"

"Well...the Alliance Party has just about broken ten percent, but they are still way off getting a seat. They have just beat the Fusionists, but that says more about the Conservative and Constitution collapse here than anything. The Progressives have almost as many votes as the Alliance and Fusionists put together, and this wasn't considered especially good territory for them. With the anti-immigration rhetoric you mentioned, we might have expected the Nationals to have success here...but the scale of it is astonishing. Almost twice as many votes as the Liberals, who've inherited most of the old Democratic coalition here."

"And New Mexico was considered an increasingly safe Democratic state. The last time it voted for a Republican president was 2004 - George W. Bush, in fact, whom we just saw running for his life from the mutated abomination that was once his brother. It is a huge surprise to see the Liberals trailing the Nationals here by so much."

"One of many surprises tonight..."

	TX-11		
	Cst          	88,558    	35.6%
	Nat          	53,530    	21.5%
	Con          	51,532    	20.7%
	Lib          	29,549    	11.9%
	Prog          	17,919    	7.2%
	All          	7,772     	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	248,860
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Con

"Another Texan district and a very right-wing one, with all three seats going to the right-wing parties. This one takes in a large and sparsely populated part of the middle of the state, stretching from the border with New Mexico all the way over to Fort Worth."

	OK-01		
	Cst          	68,766    	22.1%
	Con          	66,021    	21.2%
	Nat          	56,555    	18.2%
	Prog          	52,566    	16.9%
	Lib          	49,191    	15.8%
	All          	18,406    	5.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	311,506
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Con
			Nat

"Speaking of right-wing districts, a rather similar result in Texas' neighbouring state of Oklahoma. Now this district is the most urban in the state and is focused on the city of Tulsa-"

"What, as in '24 hours from...'?"

"Yes, all these places mentioned in songs do actually exist, you know."

"Gosh."

"Anyway, this has to be one of the most right-wing cities we've seen in the US - although Oklahoma has sharply trended away from the old Democrats in recent years, it's still remarkable to see neither Progressives nor Liberals get a seat."

	TX-18		
	Lib          	112,708   	54.8%
	Prog          	44,409    	21.6%
	Cst          	17,497    	8.5%
	Con          	13,401    	6.5%
	Nat          	10,113    	4.9%
	All          	7,386     	3.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	205,514
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"Yet another Texas district, but this is a gerrymandered, packed Democratic one - or it was - in Houston, which on the map looks rather like the dismembered and decaying corpse of Pac-Man."

"Video games really are violent, aren't they?"

"However, unlike some other similar districts, the Progressives have managed to take the third seat, so it doesn't go all the Liberals' way."

	KS-03		
	Prog          	100,219   	29.3%
	Cst          	63,852    	18.7%
	Lib          	61,260    	17.9%
	Con          	59,122    	17.3%
	Nat          	34,330    	10%
	All          	23,184    	6.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	341,967
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Cst
			Lib

"Another result from Kansas. And once again, a bit of a surprise. This one takes in the Kansas part of Kansas City - no, I'm not going to explain -so is probably the most left-wing part of a very right-wing state, but it's still a surprise to see the Progressives so far ahead and the Liberals getting a seat as well."

"The one right-wing seat going to the Constitution Party. Katty?"

"Some have predicted that Kansas might eventually see a backlash against the extreme right record of Governor Brownback-"

"Alright, you probably shouldn't use pejorative names for him like that, this is the BBC."

"No, that's his actual name."

"Oh...to be fair, I'm not sure exactly why that would be pejorative, but it just sounds like-"

	ID-02		
	Cst          	84,108    	25.4%
	Prog          	77,569    	23.5%
	All          	52,092    	15.8%
	Con          	50,829    	15.4%
	Nat          	45,084    	13.6%
	Lib          	20,912    	6.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	330,594
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			All

"Wait, stop the presses! Is that - can it be?"

"It is! The Alliance Party have won their first seat!"

"Not from Gary Johnson in New Mexico, but from Idaho, of all places. Katty?"

"This probably represents the appeal of Evan McMullin, who we saw earlier, who has campaigned among his fellow Mormons to support the Alliance Party in protest against Donald Trump. This part of Idaho also has plenty of Mormon voters. But it's still a great surprise, and perhaps hints at what we might see in Utah."

"It is. We shall have to talk to him later. And Idaho only has two districts, so we can now also give the statewide seats..."

	Idaho		
	Cst          	192,050   	27.8%
	Prog          	149,204   	21.6%
	Nat          	122,981   	17.8%
	Con          	94,024    	13.6%
	All          	91,435    	13.2%
	Lib          	40,561    	5.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	690,255
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst

"There is a stark contrast between east and west Idaho, isn't there, if you look at how the placement of the Alliance Party has been affected - though still far ahead of the Liberals."

"Yes - the Constitution Party is comfortably in the lead, but who would have predicted that the Progressives would beat out the Nationals and Conservatives in a state with such a right-wing reputation?"

"Indeed. We can also give a completed Great Plains - sigh, alright, 'and northeastern part of the Rocky Mountains', happy - map too. Watch out, it's a biggie."



"A stark geographic contrast between the Constitution and National Party strongholds there. And more to do with how individual Republican state party organisations came to support one or the other, you think?"

"Certainly - there isn't that much difference between these states, other than a few factors like the Mormons in eastern Idaho I mentioned."

	TX-32		
	Lib          	87,517    	31.5%
	Con          	55,900    	20.1%
	Prog          	47,378    	17%
	Cst          	43,189    	15.5%
	Nat          	30,612    	11%
	All          	13,484    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	278,080
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Con
			Prog

"Another Texas district, northeastern Dallas-"

"What, you mean, like, J.R. and Sue Ellen and all - that's a real place too?"

"...yes. Two seats for the two left-wing parties and another relative success for the Conservatives. Many expected the Conservatives to get the minority of right-wing votes in more built-up areas with a left-wing majority, but this is the exception to the rule."

	KS-04		
	Cst          	102,794   	37.4%
	Prog          	63,166    	23%
	Nat          	38,755    	14.1%
	Lib          	27,375    	10%
	Con          	23,717    	8.6%
	All          	18,740    	6.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	274,547
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			Cst

"Kansas' fourth district, in the south of the state, where Wichita is - YES LIKE THE GLENN CAMPBELL SONG - usually considered a very right-wing district, and yet, though the Constitution Party easily win, there's a Progressive seat even here."

"Really, this new voting system has exposed a formerly unseen strange of Kansas progressivism, along with many other hidden trends beneath the winner-take-all surface of the old American politics we thought we knew."

 

[Thande]

	CO-01		
	Prog          	152,985   	38%
	Lib          	124,805   	31%
	Cst          	72,919    	18.1%
	All          	31,177    	7.7%
	Con          	20,567    	5.1%
	Nat          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	402,453
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

"Quite different to the last Colorado district we saw. The first district takes in a substantial chunk of the large city of Denver, and we can see that Colorado progressivism represented here, with the Progressives beating out the Liberals."

"Let's have a map..."



"Hmm, Colorado clearly has a lot more people than New Mexico, doesn't it?"

"...yes Andrew."

	NE-02		
	Nat          	89,923    	31.5%
	Prog          	71,841    	25.2%
	Lib          	59,261    	20.8%
	Fus          	47,583    	16.7%
	All          	16,604    	5.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	285,211
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Prog
			Lib

"We haven't heard from Nebraska in a bit. This is the most urban and left-wing, relatively, of its districts, based on the city of Omaha - yes like the beach, I think we already said that."

"Relatively is the word, though. A seat each go to the Progressives and Liberals, but the Nationals are firmly in the lead."

"As we saw in the Plains states, quite a stark geographic contrast with neighbouring Kansas, which is a very similar state-"

"A city along the eastern border, lots of corn in the rest, not much else?"

"-yes - but they're voting totally differently tonight. Again, the collapse of the local Republican Party organisations towards one of the new right-wing parties or another is having a huge effect. Some may also have reacted negatively to the Con-Con Fusion deal. It remains to be seen whether it'll continue at the next election, or if things will become less locally polarised across these states."

"Some of the parties might have changed altogether by the next election..."

	OK-02		
	Cst          	74,982    	27.6%
	Nat          	71,161    	26.2%
	Con          	52,012    	19.1%
	Prog          	36,450    	13.4%
	Lib          	25,572    	9.4%
	All          	11,667    	4.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	271,844
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Con

"Oklahoma again, and yet another very right-wing district...this is in the east, which actually used to be the most Democratic part of the state before a recent alignment after 2008, but you'd never guess it now."

"In part due to the Native American vote, which we already mentioned in the Dakotas usually tends to skew Democratic in modern times - though local factors are also important."

"Speaking of the Dakotas - no, never mind."

	NE-03		
	Nat          	136,503   	51.1%
	Fus          	63,324    	23.7%
	Prog          	29,800    	11.2%
	Lib          	23,562    	8.8%
	All          	13,730    	5.1%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	266,918
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat
			Fus

"And that's Nebraska's third and final district - the large rural one in the west. This was considered one of the most right-wing places in America, with Democrats often not even standing a candidate, and, well, that's born out here - two seats to the Nationals and one to the Fusionists."

"Presumably the Nationals have therefore taken the statewide top-up seats for Nebraska..."

	Nebraska at-large		
	Nat          	321,501   	38.8%
	Fus          	174,460   	21.1%
	Prog          	161,574   	19.5%
	Lib          	122,920   	14.8%
	All          	47,721    	5.8%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	828,176
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Quite a decisive win for the Nationals, indeed - with the Fusionists in second, no less."

"One parallel to Kansas is that there is still a substantial Progressive vote, taking two seats out of the eleven on offer, but it's certainly down the table."

"Let's see that on a map..."



"Yes, definitely a contrast between Kansas and Nebraska there. The Constitution Party appeal in Oklahoma and Nebraska might match up with what we're seeing in Texas - perhaps Texas' status as Mr Cruz's home state is not as crucial as we thought."

	TX-05		
	Cst          	65,777    	28.3%
	Lib          	57,512    	24.7%
	Nat          	43,134    	18.5%
	Con          	36,930    	15.9%
	Prog          	22,247    	9.6%
	All          	7,135     	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	232,735
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Lib
			Nat

"Speaking of Texas, here we are again with the fifth district, which stretches eastwards from Dallas. This was considered sufficiently safe Republican under the old system that the Democrats sometimes didn't even contest it - but here we can see there was always a substantial hidden vote on the left, here represented by the Liberals."

	NM-01		
	Nat          	74,852    	26.2%
	Prog          	74,652    	26.2%
	Lib          	72,598    	25.5%
	All          	37,788    	13.3%
	Fus          	25,280    	8.9%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	285,170
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Prog
			Lib

"New Mexico's first district takes in the city of Albuquerque-"

"Oh, is THAT how you spell Albakirky in the song? I've always wondered."

"...yes...and, although two seats are going to Progressives and Liberals here, the Nationals again take the lead - albeit only by two hundred votes. Clearly the anti-immigration sentiment has connected here. The local Luján dynasty, who have gone over from the Democrats to the Liberals, may be alarmed by this series of events."

"Speaking of Dynasty-"

	OK-03		
	Cst          	84,210    	28.7%
	Nat          	68,569    	23.4%
	Con          	63,299    	21.6%
	Prog          	35,733    	12.2%
	Lib          	25,446    	8.7%
	All          	16,160    	5.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	293,417
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Con

"Another very right-wing blowout result from Oklahoma, this time in the western 'panhandle', which historically was the most Republican part of the state, at least until now when it appears to all be Republican... or their successors."

	TX-30		
	Lib          	138,730   	62.9%
	Prog          	35,798    	16.2%
	Cst          	16,737    	7.6%
	Con          	13,502    	6.1%
	Nat          	10,094    	4.6%
	All          	5,850     	2.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	220,711
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Lib

"And this district in the south of Dallas, which was gerrymandered to pack in Hispanic and African-American voters...again, it's backfired, with all three seats going to the Liberals, while most of Texas' more right-wing districts are still having one seat go to the Liberals too."

	CO-05		
	Cst          	212,558   	57.2%
	Prog          	75,907    	20.4%
	Lib          	47,630    	12.8%
	All          	35,734    	9.6%
	Nat          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	371,829
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst
			Prog

"That's...what's happened there?"

"Well, this is Colorado's fifth district, around the city of Colorado Springs, which interestingly has one of the largest British communities in the modern US-"

"I more meant the lack of any votes for the Nationals and Conservatives."

"Oh, well, apparently, both parties severely...mucked up their nomination papers in most of the state of Colorado. Clearly the Constitution Party has benefited."

"British people, voting for Ted Cruz's party? This is seriously going to dent our sense of smug moral superiority."

	TX-10		
	Lib          	85,825    	27.2%
	Cst          	76,595    	24.3%
	Prog          	50,159    	15.9%
	Con          	45,542    	14.5%
	Nat          	42,775    	13.6%
	All          	14,237    	4.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	315,133
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Prog

"Er, anway, Texas' tenth district...fills in a gap in between Austin and Houston, phew, that's hard to pronounce. This was considered a fairly reliable Republican district, but here two out of three seats have gone to the left-wing parties. Certainly, nobody expected the Progressives to do this well in Texas of all places."

	KS-01		
	Cst          	89,994    	34%
	Con          	47,321    	17.9%
	Nat          	46,134    	17.4%
	Prog          	44,409    	16.8%
	Lib          	19,981    	7.5%
	All          	16,926    	6.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	264,764
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Con
			Nat

"And that's our last result from Kansas. The first district, the most conservative, the big one in the west, just like Nebraska...but very different results, with the Nationals being the lowest of the three right-wing parties. But they all win seats."

"We can therefore assign the top-up seats for Kansas..."

	Kansas		
	Cst          	333,259   	28.3%
	Prog          	286,942   	24.4%
	Con          	177,315   	15.1%
	Nat          	160,444   	13.6%
	Lib          	140,063   	11.9%
	All          	78,912    	6.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,176,935
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst
			0

"No surprises there - both seats go to the Constitution Party."

"But the Progressives weren't far off! Again, Kansas is full of surprises tonight."

"Speaking of surprises - tenuous link - you asked me to find someone from the US military to talk to, well, shortly we can go live to General Wesley Clark..."

 

[Thande]

"Well, that's something to look forward to, I'm sure. In the meantime..."

	CO-07		
	Prog          	120,327   	32.1%
	Con          	82,681    	22.1%
	Lib          	72,310    	19.3%
	Cst          	64,964    	17.3%
	All          	34,289    	9.2%
	Nat          	0         	0%
	FALSE          	0         	0%
			
		Total	374,571
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Con
			Lib

"At least the Conservatives didn't...muck it up in Colorado's seventh district, although the Nationals did. This is the northwestern part of greater Denver. Again, support for the Progressives, but the Conservatives manage to beat the Liberals, in a fairly urban area no less."

	OK-05		
	Con          	58,376    	20.8%
	Lib          	56,473    	20.1%
	Prog          	55,296    	19.7%
	Cst          	50,097    	17.8%
	Nat          	40,927    	14.6%
	All          	19,593    	7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	280,761
			
	MCs elected:		
			Con
			Lib
			Prog

"And speaking of the Conservatives, they've managed to top the polls in Oklahoma's fifth district, around Oklahoma City - MAKE AN EFFORT - and what has been a targeted growth area for the left, the old Democrats. Though the Conservatives are on top, it does appear to be the case, with the other two seats going to the left."

"But with all the votes from Oklahoma now in, it seems certain that it won't be the left-wing parties that benefit from the top-up seats..."

	Oklahoma		
	Cst          	355,977   	24.5%
	Nat          	296,645   	20.4%
	Con          	296,514   	20.4%
	Prog          	230,362   	15.9%
	Lib          	190,013   	13.1%
	All          	83,481    	5.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,452,992
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst

"Yes, like Idaho and Kansas, another two seats for the Constitution Party. And our final map for those three states..."



"Besides the contrast between the orange and purple we noted before, that splash of Progressive green in Kansas certainly stands out..."

	TX-16		
	Lib          	88,555    	46%
	Prog          	42,229    	21.9%
	Cst          	19,782    	10.3%
	Con          	19,218    	10%
	Nat          	13,335    	6.9%
	All          	9,574     	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	192,692
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"Ah, now, back to Texas again, but this seat is quite different. It's right on the western edge of Texas, being closer to New Mexico than the rest of the state, and it's basically the city of El Paso-"

"What, as in those packets of rice with peppers in you buy from Sainsbury's?"

"Maybe you buy them from Sainsbury's, some of us have got more self-respect." (coughs) "Anyway, this district was represented by Beto O'Rourke-"

"Did you stutter then?"

"-and he's back in as one of the Liberals, but the Progressives also get a seat. And I should say that we've been inundated by tweets reminding us that this part of Texas is not, in fact, in Central Time."

	NM-03		
	Nat          	77,424    	27.7%
	Lib          	75,794    	27.2%
	Prog          	68,827    	24.7%
	All          	32,109    	11.5%
	Fus          	24,900    	8.9%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	279,053
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Prog

"That's the third and last New Mexico district, taking in the northern part of the state...and yet another win for the Nationals, who have topped the polls in all three districts of this formerly Democratic-leaning state."

"Quite surprising, and some might say, troubling. What about the top-up seats, I assume they have them as well?"

"Mathematically they must have..."

	New Mexico at-large		
	Nat          	246,442   	30.9%
	Lib          	198,464   	24.9%
	Prog          	186,770   	23.4%
	All          	93,418    	11.7%
	Fus          	73,225    	9.2%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	798,319
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat

"Yes, it's not even close - the Nationals have the top-up seats too. That means in New Mexico, out of eleven seats on offer, the Nationals have six, the Liberals have three and the Progressives have two. Quite a shock for the Liberals, just like Pennsylvania earlier tonight."

"Yes, we'll have to speak to someone from the Liberals about that, but in the meantime, I understand we can now speak to General Wesley Clark about the military vote."

The screen flickered on to show a harassed-looking Clark in full military uniform. Behind him in the dark room was a complex set of radar displays and men in shirtsleeves staring earnestly at scrolling text on computer monitors. "Yes? I'm sorry, but I can't spare much time right now."

"General Clark, I..." Neil trailed off. "I thought you were retired?"

"That's just what they wanted you to think," Clark said with a wink. "It was all cover for me taking up this post here at NORAD under Cheyenne Mountain. We're monitoring an imminent threat to the nation, so if you don't mind-"

"What threat?"

Clark hesitated, then shook his head. "Why the hell not. OK, so you remember when Congress deregulated the position of Santa Claus - yeah yeah, we all expected that one councilman dude from Alaska to get the gig - turns out there was a foreign buyout and nobody thought to block this on national security grounds," he added angrily, gritting his teeth. "So now the franchise is run by..." He glanced at his notes. "The Raymond Briggs Father Christmas, whatever the hell that means, based in your country," he jabbed a finger at Neil.

"I...what are you talking about?"

"Well, apparently," Clark said sardonically, "this version of Santa or Father Christmas or what the hell else he's called, he reads the Guardian, whatever that is, and he called us and said 'blooming' a lot, and sent this." He wordlessly raised a huge pile of dot-matrix printout, the strips of paper with the sprocket-wheel holes still attached. "Apparently America has collectively been put on the Naughty List for...well it starts with Guantánamo Bay and Diego Garcia, I won't bore you with the details."

"General Clark, I-"

"So now we have to keep watch on the North Pole in case Santa launches an ICBM at us," Clark added sourly. "This isn't what I put on this uniform to do, let me tell you-"

"GENERAL CLARK," Neil said loudly. "I know you have been critical of realism in a foreign policy sense, but perhaps you might need to refresh your memory on the distinction between fiction and r-"

Neil was cut off when loud klaxons sounded behind Clark on the screen, accompanied by rotating ref lights. "Oh, shit," Clark muttered. "As if we didn't have enough crap on our plate at the moment..."

Clark walked across the room, the cameras following, to look out of a large, armoured window that looked down into a disused missile silo bay. Loud, rhythmic metallic sounds and hisses could be heard from the other side of the glass. "Unauthorised offworld activation!" proclaimed a small, balding sergeant, whose uniform bore the patch of the United States Air Force Space Command with its delta logo, which was already a thing for years and was not made up by Trump in imitation of Star Trek you morons. "We don't have an IDC!"

"I gathered that," Clark growled. "Close the iris!"

The cameraman was now close enough to discern the large metallic ring that sat amid the steaming support struts in the room, a ramp leading up to it. Chevrons around the ring periodically lighting up reddish-orange. Now, an inner metallic iris emerged and began to rotate to a closed position, but ground to a halt halfway, twitching in place with fully half of the middle part of the ring still open.

"Dammit," Clark cursed. "I forgot Congress outsourced the iris maintenance as well!"

The last chevron lit up red-orange and a water-looking stream of energy burst out of the ring, then reverted to a flat, fluctuating vertical pool, in between the twitching, malfunctioning iris. Camouflage-clad soldiers took up positions, their P-60s trained on the gap.

"Er, General Clark..." Neil said, still gamely ploughing on.

But Clark ignored him, for a figure suddenly emerged from the ring, diving through the reduced-size portal as though it was part of an assault course. Bullets flashed all around him, but all seemed to miss. One by one, he took out each of the soldiers with hand-to-hand combat, his shirt being torn away in the process. With the soldiers at his feet and groaning, he glared up at Clark through the window.

Clark swore. "Alert the White House," he snapped. "We have a Foothold situation."

"Is it the Aschen this time?" the sergeant asked worriedly. "Or the Replicators?"

"No," Clark said, meeting the newcomer's glare. "It's James Blunt, back for revenge."

Mercifully, the signal cut out.

"Err...well, that was certainly a very interesting conversation with General Wesley Clark, former attempted Democratic presidential nominee in 2004," Neil said, his face suddenly very set. "Shall...shall we go on?"

	TX-26		
	Cst          	81,624    	25.6%
	Con          	62,925    	19.7%
	Lib          	55,973    	17.6%
	Prog          	53,563    	16.8%
	Nat          	49,484    	15.5%
	All          	15,285    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	318,854
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Con
			Lib

"Back to Texas, this district is north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and seats for both the Constitution and Conservative parties, with the third seat going to the Liberals."

	UT-03		
	Cst          	98,590    	34%
	All          	85,680    	29.6%
	Prog          	53,491    	18.5%
	Con          	22,182    	7.7%
	Nat          	16,010    	5.5%
	Lib          	13,970    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	289,923
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			All
			Prog

"Well. That's definitely the most surprising thing we've just seen in the last five minutes. Utah is now reporting - we'll probably hear from Evan McMullin at some point - and his campaign has paid dividends here, too, it seems."

"Yes, the Constitution Party are in first but the Alliance are not far behind - an extraordinary event considering their lack of success in most of the nation. That's their second seat for tonight."

"And also, as we saw in Kansas - Utah is usually considered a very right-wing state, but here we can see a hidden Progressive vote revealed. And not even in a very urbanised part of the state, as this district is in the southeast. Who knows what happens when we get to Salt Lake City itself, district 4 - well, most of it - which was genuinely close even under the old system?"

	TX-25		
	Cst          	69,596    	22.2%
	Lib          	64,543    	20.6%
	Prog          	61,406    	19.6%
	Con          	53,892    	17.2%
	Nat          	48,988    	15.6%
	All          	14,686    	4.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	313,111
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Lib
			Prog

"Yet another Texas district. This is one of those wiggly leftover bits in the middle of the state that stretches all the way from Fort Worth to Austin. And some very divided results, too - it was a very close fight for that third seat."

"Let's have a map update."

"Alright, even though there'll probably be another Texas declaration in a minute..."



"Texas definitely looks to be a fight between the Constitution Party and the Liberals for the most part, though there's some seats picked up by the Conservative Party and even the Progressives...relatively few from the Nationals, though."

"A clearer geographic picture might emerge in time..."

	TX-13		
	Cst          	92,159    	38.6%
	Nat          	50,958    	21.3%
	Con          	47,721    	20%
	Lib          	22,866    	9.6%
	Prog          	17,387    	7.3%
	All          	7,755     	3.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	238,846
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Nat
			Con

"See, what did I tell you?"

"Fine...anyway, this is another right-wing-dominated district, with the Conservatives, the lowest of the right-wing parties, still getting more than double the vote of the highest left-wing party, the Liberals. This takes in most of the north of the state, including that bit that sticks up-"

"I think that's the Panhandle."

"Surely the Panhandle would be the bit that sticks off to the side? Why are Americans all handling pans vertically?"

"I don't know. Probably something to do with the metric system."

	CO-03		
	Cst          	195,966   	52%
	Prog          	92,214    	24.4%
	Lib          	58,843    	15.6%
	All          	30,153    	8%
	Nat          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	377,176
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst
			Prog

"Another one of those peculiar Colorado results, with the Constitution Party benefiting from the lack of right-wing competition. This is the large district in the west of the state."

"However, the Progressives do still pull one seat out of it..."

	UT-01		
	Cst          	95,248    	34%
	All          	78,206    	27.9%
	Prog          	50,197    	17.9%
	Con          	25,034    	8.9%
	Nat          	19,221    	6.9%
	Lib          	12,536    	4.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	280,442
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			All
			Prog

"We're back to Utah for the first district, which is the northern part of the state including the city of Ogden...and that's some more remarkable wins for both the Alliance Party and the Progressives, as we discussed before."

"The Constitution Party still firmly in first, though. And speaking of which, we've got the last two Colorado results, back to back..."

	CO-06		
	Cst          	122,550   	32.2%
	Prog          	99,376    	26.1%
	Lib          	91,723    	24.1%
	Con          	34,565    	9.1%
	All          	32,312    	8.5%
	Nat          	0         	0%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	380,526
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			Lib

	CO-02		
	Prog          	167,646   	35.6%
	Lib          	97,320    	20.6%
	Con          	92,271    	19.6%
	Cst          	72,498    	15.4%
	All          	41,729    	8.9%
	Nat          	0         	0%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	471,464
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Con

"Well, the Conservative Party at least remembered to contest these two, and even won a seat in the second district where, for once, the Constitution Party isn't in contention. Which is the one in the north-central part of the state, including places like Boulder-"

"Oh, as in the Hollies song 'Boulder to Birmingham'?"

"Yes, that's the one. The other district, the sixth, is in the eastern part of the Denver metropolitan area - although two out of three seats go to left-wing parties, the Constitution Party is more typically on top."

"So I assume it gets the top-up seats too?"

	Colorado		
	Cst          	895,418   	32.2%
	Prog          	792,207   	28.5%
	Lib          	546,663   	19.7%
	Con          	255,745   	9.2%
	All          	238,866   	8.6%
	Nat          	51,321    	1.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,780,220
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst

"Indeed. Not really what we might expect for a state like Colorado, but when the Conservatives and Nationals were so disorganised, the Constitution Party has clearly benefited from being the only right-wing party on the ballot in most of the state. The Progressives weren't far behind, though."

"And here's the final map..."



"Two states that voted Democratic in the final two US presidential elections, yet here, right-wing parties seem to have taken the top spot. Is this a worry for the Liberals, or have their breakthroughs in the South more than made up for this? Stay tuned to find out..."

 

[Thande]

"Let's recap. At...why are the hands of my watch going backwards...whatever hour it is, the situation in this unique United States election is as follows."

"..."

"Jeremy?"

"Sorry, I was eating this Pot Noodle and neglected to notice it was from Colorado. Ahem. With about three-quarters of all seats now declared, one thousand and sixty-five out of one thousand four hundred and ten, the national picture looks like this..."

357	Lib          	
258	Nat    	
203	Prog        	
108	Cst        	
106	Con          	
30	Fus       	
3	All

"The Liberal Party, the primary centre-left successor to the old Democrats and led by veteran politician and former First Lady, New York Democratic Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is on three hundred and fifty-seven seats. Second, surprising, er, many commentators, is the far...hard-right populist anti-immigration National Party, led by billionaire businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump, on two hundred and fifty-eight seats. In third, another surprise, the uh...farther-left, socialist, Progressive Party led by former Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders, has made it to third place - two hundred and three seats. Below that, well, we've seen a couple of parties just trading places there - it's just like the old charts on Top of the Pops, isn't it, except with fewer paedophiles - uh - the Constitution Party has just overtaken the Conservative Party. That's the Constitution Party, led by former Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, which is a social-conservative group that outright rejects President Obama's constitutional reforms. The Conservative Party was, well, before tonight it was thought of as the main centre-right successor to the Republican Party, as the Liberals are to the Democrats. But we now see a very different picture. The Liberals have more than three times as many seats as the Conservatives, who have slipped to third place in terms of the right-wing parties. The Conservative Party is formally - that's formally we an A, not an ER - led by former Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush. Of course due to Mr Bush injuring himself on the campaign trail and now, we are being told, having been transformed into a mutant abomination by radioactive guacamole and then going on a rampage, the Conservative leadership has been devolved to Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Florida Senator Marco Rubio. In addition to these parties, there are thirty seats won by 'Fusion' candidates endorsed by both the Conservative and Constitution Parties, and finally, last and very much least, the Alliance Party - a coalition of all America's pre-reform third parties calling for further reform - are finally on the scoreboard with their first three seats, won in Utah and Idaho HNNNNNNNNGHHHHH-"

"Alright, alright, Jeremy! Breathe, for crying out loud! You've gone blue in the face!"

"Which would be showing unacceptable favouritism to one party," Katty Kay agreed.

Gasping into a paper bag - maybe even that same fabled one that had dealt near-mortal injuries to Jeb Bush - Jeremy Vine nodded frantically. "Uh...stick up that map our unpaid intern did..." he managed.



"There," Vine managed after a few more breaths. "This map shows the final leading party in each state where they have finished counting the votes, which determines the last two top-up seats in each state. Now note that Texas is so large that there are still quite a few seats left to declare there, so it's not filled in, even though Arizona and Colorado, to the west of it, are. If this was an old-style American election, all we would care about is who came top in each state - as you can see in the bottom map. But if you look at the top map where we've shown the margin, you can see just how narrow a lot of these wins were."

"Yes, under the old system we would be getting a thousand legal challenges and calls for recounts at this point," Kay commented. "Some of them might even have been in the close states."

Neil coughed. "Yes. But what sorts of regional trends can we see here, Jeremy?"

"Well, some are predictable, and others definitely aren't. Those analysts who predicted any success for Mr Sanders' Progressives - and there weren't many - thought that that support would lie in his home region of New England. And they were right; but the Progressives have also secured some impressive results in the farming and old industrial or 'rustbelt' states of the Midwest, which was not predicted at all. If the Liberals have underperformed there, though, they have astonished the commentariat by sweeping almost all of the South, which their precursor Democrats have not achieved since the days of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s."

"And what's the reason for that?"

"A little early to say, but probably that the old Democratic vote in the South - strongly associated with the BAME community - has gone over almost wholesale to the Liberals, whereas the old Republican vote has split three ways between the three new right-wing parties."

"I see. And has the reverse happened anywhere?"

"Probably yes, in Pennsylvania, in New Mexico, and nearly in New Jersey as well. It's interesting to see how, with some exceptions, the states have coalesced into coherent geographical blocs on our bottom map. In particular, note the stripe of Constitution Party support cutting from Oklahoma over to Idaho, which may include Texas as well when it finishes counting. That sudden gain in support we've seen helps explain why the Constitution Party has now overtaken the Conservatives in seats, just about."

"You said seventy-five percent of seats are in, but it looks like we've filled in a lot more than seventy-five percent of the United States - especially as some of Texas has already reported."

"Well, that's partly a testament to how large the United States is, and how many geographically large interior states have very few people. But mostly, it's about California."

"Ah, California..."

"Yes," Vine confirmed as the map zoomed in on the Golden State, which was currently the Grey Not Filled In State. "California is large enough in terms of population and GDP that it would easily be a G7 country in its own right even if it was separate from the rest of the United States. Under this new system it has a whopping 161 seats, more than ten percent of the total Congress."

"Of course, this isn't like an election at home, is it? When seats can declare at any time and they come in in a patchwork across the country?"

"Yes, this is much more geographically driven by the size of the country. Historically, California's had a bit of a bum deal - can I say that? - with American presidential elections, as a lot of its people don't get to vote until most of the rest of the country has already declared their results - so turnout has historically been low, as often the election has already been decided."

"That doesn't seem terribly fair."

"No; and it's also a testament to how the presidency, that one vote for one man, was often seen as the be-all and end-all of politics, ignoring the legislative element where Californian votes did matter. Well, under the new system, the government now has the kind of legislature-central structure we're used to from home, so California's votes will all count..."

"But could Californians, and other people in the west of the country, still be influenced by the results that have already reported?"

"That seems quite possible Andrew, yes. Especially if there's a perception that former Republican voters need to rally around just one of the right-wing parties to beat the Liberals and Progressives. According to Duverger's Law, they may well focus on the right-wing party that's won the most seats, although..."

Vine trailed off. There was a dawning realisation that there was no 'although' to his sentence. It had already become clear from results out east that the mental cordon sanitaire that they and most journalists had placed around Donald Trump's party was the emperor's new clothes, as far as the American electorate was concerned.

"Well, er...thank you, Jeremy. And in the meantime, I see new results have started appearing on your map."

	AZ-02		
	Lib          	87,436    	27.7%
	Prog          	69,240    	21.9%
	Nat          	65,467    	20.7%
	Cst          	46,624    	14.8%
	Con          	29,105    	9.2%
	All          	17,967    	5.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	315,839
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Nat

"And we begin with a new state. Arizona, a desert state along the border with Mexico, next to New Mexico in fact. It's home to the largest uh...indigenous reservation, the Navajo people, and the city of Phoenix, which is hotter than Keira Knightley making a vindaloo over an active volcano."

"I...yes. The second district is in the south-east of the state, along the border with Mexico, and we might have expected Mr Trump's National Party's anti-immigration message to resonate here, as it apparently has in New Mexico. However, the Nationals only take the third seat, which is partly because of the votes from the city of Tucson--"

"Oh is that how you spell it?"

"--so the Liberals and Progressives are in the first and second place. Oh, and the incumbent Republican congresswoman under the old system, veteran former fighter pilot Martha McSally, is languishing down in fifth as the Conservative candidate, despite previously giving no impression whatsoever that she might be absolutely hopeless at politics."

"...I see. And then I think we have some more Texas results, back to back."

	TX-21		
	Lib          	82,933    	23.1%
	Cst          	73,472    	20.5%
	Prog          	69,595    	19.4%
	Con          	66,865    	18.6%
	Nat          	47,999    	13.4%
	All          	18,121    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	358,985
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Prog

	TX-33		
	Lib          	57,948    	44.7%
	Prog          	36,565    	28.2%
	Cst          	13,356    	10.3%
	Nat          	8,857     	6.8%
	Con          	8,574     	6.6%
	All          	4,353     	3.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	129,653
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

	TX-28		
	Lib          	81,669    	43.3%
	Cst          	31,837    	16.9%
	Prog          	28,354    	15%
	Nat          	21,798    	11.6%
	Con          	18,883    	10%
	All          	6,059     	3.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	188,600
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Cst

"Yes, three more Texan districts. The twenty-first, in the middle of the state, taking in part of Austin and and area north of San Antonio. The thirty-third, that 'orrible wiggly lookin' fing taking in parts of Dallas. And the twenty-eighth, which is down in the south along the Rio Grande, the border with Mexico. The Liberal in the last case is Henry Cuelllar, the old Democrat, who's a survival from the old days when Texan Democrats were more conservative, incidentally."

"More support for the Liberals and the Constitution Party, as we've seen elsewhere in Texas, but two more seats for the Progressives too...in Texas!"

"Yes, this new voting system is really revealing voting patterns by smaller groups which previously got swamped by the focus on the overall winner."

	AZ-04		
	Nat          	88,662    	29.7%
	Cst          	58,614    	19.6%
	Con          	54,767    	18.3%
	Lib          	47,238    	15.8%
	Prog          	34,954    	11.7%
	All          	14,248    	4.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	298,483
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Cst
			Con

"Back to Arizona...the fourth district is the large rural one in the west, much more right-wing...all three right-wing parties have won a seat, the Conservatives not losing out in this case. Let's have a map update."



"Nevada, of course, we've not heard from at all yet...but we can see those very unexpected Alliance seats right there in Utah."

	TX-29		
	Lib          	69,324    	51.9%
	Prog          	25,703    	19.2%
	Cst          	17,060    	12.8%
	Con          	8,506     	6.4%
	Nat          	8,446     	6.3%
	All          	4,604     	3.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	133,642
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"That's another heavily left-wing urban district in Texas, in the city of Houston. Again, not monolithically for the Liberals as we've seen in some other places, but with the Progressives picking up a seat too. Go on, let's go mad and have another map update."



"Texas looking very much like a fight between the Liberals and the Constitution Party, at least in terms of who's topping the polls in each district."

	AZ-06		
	Lib          	84,841    	25.1%
	Nat          	79,397    	23.5%
	Prog          	58,730    	17.4%
	Con          	51,400    	15.2%
	Cst          	46,535    	13.8%
	All          	17,428    	5.2%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	338,331
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Nat
			Prog

"This Arizona district is mostly in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is. The Nationals are clearly on top of the right-wing parties, but again, the anti-immigration vote here is perhaps weaker than we might have expected from all the rhetoric from people like that Sheriff Joe Arpeggio or whatever his name was."

	UT-02		
	Cst          	86,519    	30.5%
	Prog          	72,170    	25.4%
	All          	62,488    	22%
	Nat          	23,203    	8.2%
	Con          	20,803    	7.3%
	Lib          	18,516    	6.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	283,699
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Prog
			All

"And that's another seat for the Alliance Party! As well as the Constitution Party and Progressives - an unusual combination we're seeing from Utah."

"This is the most left-wing district in Utah as it takes in Salt Lake City, which - despite Utah's reputation - is considered small-l liberal even compared to some other US cities."

	TX-12		
	Cst          	77,297    	27.3%
	Lib          	59,188    	20.9%
	Con          	51,679    	18.3%
	Nat          	48,963    	17.3%
	Prog          	33,361    	11.8%
	All          	12,203    	4.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	282,691
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Lib
			Con

"And a very different picture in Texas' twelfth district, covering the west of Fort Worth and areas farther west still, where the Conservatives manage to pick up another seat."

"OK. I understand Utah's final result should be declare soon. I understand Emily will be speaking to Evan McMullin again, who masterminded the Alliance campaign here. Emily, are you out of surgery yet?"

 

[Thande]

The screen flickered to reveal Emily Maitlis standing in front of the towers of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. She looked a little pale, which did not exactly stand out in Salt Lake City, but otherwise no worse for wear. "Yes, Andrew, due to my rapid healing factor, the Tomorrow People did have that in the TV show, right, I've already recovered from surgery."

"Could you just explain for the viewers...?"

"Yes, well, as you know, in Utah you are not allowed to bring tea across the border on pain of death-"

"-I'm not sure if that's actually-"

"-and so," Maitlis continued, "I've had to have an internal IV drip of PG Tips installed to avoid dying while I'm here. But now that's done, I'm ready to head into the Tabernacle to confront, I mean interview, Evan McMullin, most successful of the Alliance Party campaigners..."

The camera crew, clearly not having recovered so swiftly from their own char-transplant procedures, belatedly followed Maitlis as she walked up the steps to the Tabernacle. The sounds of music could be heard resonating from the walls of the hetereodox temple, which was surely no surprise. What was surprising, however, was the fact that said music mostly seemed to consist of the repeating beat 'unst. unst. unst. unst' and it was accompanied by multicoloured disco lights and dry ice fumes.

Maitlis emerged into the interior and blinked. All around her, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir were singing backing vocals to an upbeat song led by an unseen singer:

"I moved out to Langley recently
With a plain and simple dream
Wanna infiltrate some third-world place
And topple their regime..."

The wall exploded, revealing Evan McMullin in dark glasses and suit, clinging to a wrecking ball and belting his lungs out:

"Yeah, it's a party in the CIA
It's a party in the CIA..."

"Mr McMullin!" Maitlis snapped, sounding scandalised. The music gradually wound down. "What do you think you're doing?"

McMullin raised his dark glasses and winked. "Well, I thought I would celebrate our successes-"

"Yes, but, I mean, couldn't you have just gone out for an Egg McMuffin or some sort of reference to that meme?"

"You forget I actually did that in actual real life, no really," McMullin explained, "so we have to escalate further or it's not funny, is it. So instead, you see, there's this Weird Al Yankovic parody of a Miley Cyrus song-"

"WHICH IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SONG TO THE ONE WHERE SHE RIDES A WRECKING BALL!" Maitlis snapped, then blanched and felt under her ribcage. "Dammit, that's dislodged the milk stent...now there's a sugar cube lodged in my pancreas."

McMullin opened his mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by a fresh result:

	UT-04		
	All          	79,094    	28.5%
	Cst          	72,730    	26.2%
	Prog          	71,350    	25.7%
	Con          	20,278    	7.3%
	Lib          	18,446    	6.7%
	Nat          	15,414    	5.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	277,311
			
	MCs elected:		
			All
			Cst
			Prog

"Five seats!" McMullin crowed in triumph. "And we finally topped the polls somewhere! This calls for a raucous celebration with um..." He paused for a moment. "Whatever it is we're still allowed to celebrate with."

"Yes, Mr McMullin's campaign certainly has born fruit with the Mormon voters of Utah and Idaho," Maitlis said, half talking to the camera. "But given how much more successful it has been than all the other components of the Alliance Party, and the wildly divergent views of those factions, how long will it be until the unity of the party is threatened?"

No sooner had Maitlis spoken that a large wall tapestry of Jesus planting a flag on Vancouver Island was twitched aside to reveal a wild-eyed Gary Johnson. "You won' get away wit' this!" he said incoherently, then raised what appeared to be a rolled-up newspaper to his lips. "Smoke weeed eeevvery dayyy...." Blood began trickling from his ears even before McMullin's first bullet zinged overhead.

"Back to the studio," Maitlis said hastily, ducking under an ornate table and checking what looked like a Tamagotchi. "Shit, now my blood's turned to builder's brew..."

"Thank you Emily," Neil coughed. "And can we now give the statewide seats for Utah, Jeremy?"

	Utah		
	Cst          	353,087   	31.2%
	All          	305,468   	27%
	Prog          	247,209   	21.9%
	Con          	88,296    	7.8%
	Nat          	73,848    	6.5%
	Lib          	63,467    	5.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	1,131,375
			
	MCs elected:		
			Cst
			Cst

"The Alliance Party weren't far off obtaining two more seats, but the Constitution Party has triumphed. Very, very different politics here to the rest of the nation, with the two most popular parties elsewhere languishing barely above five percent each. Usually Utah was thought of simply as a reliable Republican state, but now it is expressing a very different, almost unique voice in this new system."

"One wonders how much more of that we might see in future elections..."

	TX-34		
	Lib          	73,875    	43%
	Prog          	27,921    	16.2%
	Cst          	26,916    	15.7%
	Nat          	20,619    	12%
	Con          	17,232    	10%
	All          	5,406     	3.1%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	171,969
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"There are a great many more Texas seats to come, of course, and then California should be reporting before too long with even more...the thirty-fourth district is another of the long vertical ones along the Mexican border, with a lot of Hispanic voters who formerly voted Democratic and now appear to be going Liberal, albeit with a Progressive minority."

"Yes, we saw in Chicago not to write off the Progressive constituency within the Hispanic community..."

	AZ-01		
	Lib          	76,318    	26.8%
	Prog          	56,556    	19.8%
	Cst          	49,478    	17.4%
	Nat          	45,672    	16%
	Con          	40,778    	14.3%
	All          	16,171    	5.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	284,973
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Cst

"Arizona's first district is the most Native American in the country, containing both the Navajo and Hopi nations, with one-quarter of the population being indigenous. Both the indigenous voters and the others have tended to favour the Democrats under the old system, here we can see the Constitution Party has secured the third seat, just ahead of the Nationals. Again, the anti-immigration tendency seems to be less pronounced in Arizona than many expected."

"And who would be more anti-letting people into the country than Native Americans, after what happened last time, eh, eh?"

"Don't try to be clever, Jeremy."

	TX-23		
	Lib          	79,770    	34.5%
	Cst          	46,143    	19.9%
	Prog          	35,384    	15.3%
	Con          	32,457    	14%
	Nat          	28,676    	12.4%
	All          	8,935     	3.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	231,365
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Lib

"Er, back to Texas, and like the Arizona one this is a very large district, taking in most of the west of Texas. It has a Hispanic majority and was a very close swing district under the old system, but the more fragmented right tonight has tended to favour the Liberals."

	OR-02		
	Nat          	154,753   	40.6%
	Prog          	76,182    	20%
	Lib          	62,877    	16.5%
	Cst          	46,143    	12.1%
	Con          	32,457    	8.5%
	All          	8,935     	2.3%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	381,347
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Nat
			Prog

"Well. Something new again. Our first result from the state of Oregon-"

"The place where oregano comes from?"

"That doesn't work because Americans pronounce 'oregano' as 'or-reggan-oh', Jeremy."

"Well how was I supposed to know-"

"-anyway, Oregon is usually thought of as a, er, 'blue state' under the old system - it's part of the Pacific Northwest and what's sometimes called the 'Left Coast'. However, this district - another very large one - is in the rural east of the state, which is culturally more like Idaho. So it's perhaps not surprising that it's favoured the right, but..."

"Yes, in this case that's a very strong vote for the Nationals, unlike the Constitution success we saw in Idaho. As the night wears on, are right-wing voters perhaps being influenced by the news from earlier tonight - like the higher than expected National vote in the Northeastern states?"

"Perhaps - especially as the Pacific Northwest has a lot of ancestral cultural ties with New England."

	AZ-05		
	Nat          	103,123   	31.1%
	Lib          	69,733    	21%
	Cst          	52,466    	15.8%
	Prog          	51,547    	15.5%
	Con          	35,843    	10.8%
	All          	19,381    	5.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	332,093
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Cst

"Down in Arizona again, in the suburbs east of Phoenix, and at least in this district that is a fairly convincing lead for the Nationals, though they only get one seat out of it. Very close third place between the Constitution Party and the Progressives."

	TX-35		
	Lib          	86,677    	43.2%
	Prog          	41,857    	20.9%
	Cst          	25,229    	12.6%
	Con          	19,112    	9.5%
	Nat          	16,795    	8.4%
	All          	10,906    	5.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	200,576
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

	TX-22		
	Lib          	101,589   	33.1%
	Cst          	75,910    	24.7%
	Con          	44,906    	14.6%
	Nat          	38,901    	12.7%
	Prog          	33,936    	11.1%
	All          	11,535    	3.8%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	306,777
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Lib

"Two more districts from Texas, back to back. The thirty-fifth is one of the most painfully gerrymandered districts in the country, designed to be Democratic-packed under the old system, in parts of San Antonio. Again, this has backfired by delivering all three seats to the left-wing parties in this case. In the twenty-second district, in the suburbs of Houston, things are more mixed, with another example of a fight between the Liberals and Constitution Party."

"Time for a quick map update."



"More than half of the Texas results are now in, and yes, it's still very much a purple vs blue battle."

	WA-04		
	Nat          	111,683   	46%
	Prog          	66,808    	27.5%
	Fus          	28,877    	11.9%
	Lib          	18,275    	7.5%
	All          	17,025    	7%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	242,668
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Prog
			Nat

"Well - that's - another new state, uh..."

"Yes, to explain for the viewers at home who may be confused in thinking we saw Washington earlier, that was the capital city, Washington DC, whereas this is a completely separate state on the other side of the country also named after Washington, no this will never not confuse our tourists. Like its neighbour Oregon which we just heard from, Washington is usually considered a fairly left-wing place for the most part - it's home to Seattle, where Frasier is set, you know..."

"Oh yes. And Starbucks and Microsoft and all that. So, er, where are all these votes for the Nationals coming from?"

"Well, again, this district isn't in that part, it's in the eastern part of the state, well, the middle-eastern part..."

"Don't confuse things further by bringing the Middle East into it!"

"...which is more right-wing. Still...it looks as though a lot more voters on the west coast are turning towards the Nationals, maybe because they think they're the best bet to avoid vote-splitting after those earlier results?"

"That's a scary - I mean, interesting point."

	CA-39		
	Nat          	85,962    	31.5%
	Lib          	75,228    	27.6%
	Prog          	65,002    	23.9%
	Fus          	30,820    	11.3%
	All          	15,459    	5.7%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	272,471
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Prog

"And - yes, that's yet another new state...the biggest of them all. Our first result from California...and this, too, has the Nationals in the lead, in a state that's usually thought of as a left-wing stronghold."

"Is this a big rural one as well?"

"...no. It's in the northeastern suburbs of Los Angeles, um, Orange County, it's-"

"Come on, use some geographic identifiers people will understand at home, like places where people get blown up in Lethal Weapon, places where people get blown up in Beverly Hills Cop, places where people just get blown in Beverly Hills 90210, or Disneyland."

"...it's just north of Disneyland. This area voted for President Obama in 2008, although it did shift and vote for Mitt Romney in 2012, so..."

"But it's a wealthy area, and not the sort of natural constituency we've seen for the Nationals in most places farther east," Kay said. "This is a significant change, and yes, many would say a worrying one. The other right-wing parties don't get a look in, despite the fact that here they have formed a fusion agreement."

"Despite, or because of?" Neil suggested darkly.

	TX-03		
	Lib          	76,869    	24.1%
	Cst          	67,009    	21%
	Con          	62,996    	19.8%
	Prog          	52,515    	16.5%
	Nat          	44,557    	14%
	All          	14,591    	4.6%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	318,536
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Con

"Over in Texas, meanwhile, we've still got that blue-purple fight, with the Conservatives managing to get a seat too - this district is northeast of Dallas."

	CA-52		
	Lib          	102,623   	31.2%
	Prog          	88,702    	26.9%
	Nat          	86,628    	26.3%
	Fus          	30,429    	9.2%
	All          	20,876    	6.3%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	329,258
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Nat

	CA-26		
	Lib          	88,340    	30.2%
	Prog          	80,743    	27.6%
	Nat          	76,953    	26.3%
	Fus          	28,306    	9.7%
	All          	17,890    	6.1%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	292,232
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Nat

"We already have two more back-to-back results from California, and they're identical, despite the districts being far apart...the fifty-second, yes that's a big number, California has a lot of districts...the fifty-second is in the military city of San Diego, while the twenty-second is up the coast north and west of LA...but both are pretty close three-way races between Liberals, Progressives and Nationals."

"And the Fusionists are languishing down near the Alliance Party and irrelevance. It really is looking like Californian right-wing voters have given up on everyone but the Nationals..."

	AZ-09		
	Lib          	82,910    	29.2%
	Prog          	72,248    	25.5%
	Nat          	48,858    	17.2%
	Con          	31,630    	11.1%
	Cst          	28,636    	10.1%
	All          	19,582    	6.9%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	283,863
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Nat

"And the same seats won again, a hat-trick, in Arizona...the ninth is another part of the Phoenix urban area and its surroundings...topping the polls is the human typing error, Kyrsten Sinema, who I'm sure is a loyal member of the party and absolutely won't turn out to be a liability."

"More to the point, if the Conservative and Constitution Parties had combined their votes here, they would have denied a seat to the Nationals...but that doesn't seem to be the picture in California where they actually have done so."

	TX-15		
	Lib          	75,005    	40.7%
	Cst          	32,135    	17.4%
	Prog          	29,449    	16%
	Nat          	21,273    	11.5%
	Con          	20,281    	11%
	All          	6,215     	3.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	184,358
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Cst

"Another of the long thin vertical districts in the south of Texas with a lot of Hispanic voters...the Constitution Party manages to pull out the third seat here, but isn't far ahead of the Progressives."

"Not much sign of an anti-immigration National vote along the Texan border with Mexico, either."

	NV-03		
	Lib          	79,860    	24.5%
	Nat          	78,900    	24.2%
	Fus          	75,914    	23.3%
	Prog          	71,692    	22%
	All          	19,236    	5.9%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	325,602
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Nat
			Fus

"We're running out of new states to declare results from - just Alaska and Hawaii after this - but here's the last state to declare a result in the continental United States. Now Nevada is known at home for being basically Las Vegas and that's it-"

"But you're going to correct that misapprehension, as you have for several other American places that are reduced to stereotypes among the British public?"

"...no, Nevada actually is basically Las Vegas and that's it. Well, they also have Reno, and nuclear testing. I think I'd rather take my chances with the nukes."

"Alright, enough of that - where's this district exactly?"

"It's a very large district taking in the middle part of the state, but eighty percent of the population lives right at the southern point of it, where the northern suburbs of-"

"Las Vegas, I see."

"This was a swing district under the old system, and you can see it's very close between the top four, but the Fusionists just beat out the Progressives."

"Unlike in California."

	CA-20		
	Prog          	94,830    	37%
	Lib          	85,656    	33.4%
	Nat          	42,263    	16.5%
	Fus          	17,310    	6.7%
	All          	16,479    	6.4%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con          	0         	0%
			
		Total	256,538
			
	MCs elected:		
			Prog
			Lib
			Prog

	CA-36		
	Nat          	85,444    	36%
	Lib          	77,218    	32.5%
	Prog          	46,577    	19.6%
	Fus          	17,607    	7.4%
	All          	10,524    	4.4%
	Cst          	0         	0%
	Con         	0         	0%
			
		Total	237,370
			
	MCs elected:		
			Nat
			Lib
			Prog

"Speaking of which, two more California results...the twentieth is a coastal county where the old capital of Monterey lies-"

"What, as in-"

"YES AS IN THE CHEESE...and it's just the Liberals versus the Progressives there, but the Nationals are back in the thirty-sixth district, in the southeast of the state around one of the many national parks. Again, the Fusionists just aren't in contention."

	TX-07		
	Lib          	85,526    	33.2%
	Cst          	46,727    	18.2%
	Con          	46,043    	17.9%
	Prog          	39,196    	15.2%
	Nat          	28,434    	11.1%
	All          	11,382    	4.4%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	257,308
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Cst
			Con

	TX-20		
	Lib          	89,728    	41.4%
	Prog          	42,635    	19.7%
	Cst          	31,848    	14.7%
	Con          	24,641    	11.4%
	Nat          	17,897    	8.2%
	All          	10,203    	4.7%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	216,952
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib
			Prog

"And two back-to-back results from Texas as well - the seventh district in the Houston area, and the twentieth in western San Antonio. Some more good results for the left-wing parties - in Texas, remember - and the Conservatives have squeezed out another seat.

"It's starting to look like Texas may be the last gasp for the Conservatives...and maybe the Constitution Party too. With all of California's seats up for grabs and those parties' fusion underperforming..."

"Yes, I think Emily has now had her tea infuser surgically removed again and is ready to hunt down Ted Cruz to interview him - which makes a change from him hunting down other people."

	AZ-03		
	Lib          	78,447    	37.5%
	Prog          	52,019    	24.9%
	Nat          	30,381    	14.5%
	Cst          	19,907    	9.5%
	Con          	17,664    	8.5%
	All          	10,516    	5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	208,934
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Prog
			Lib

"That's the final result from Arizona, which takes in most of the border with Mexico. And again, yes there's one National victory, but not perhaps what some expected. The Nationals have done better in places like Pennsylvania or New Jersey, thousands of miles from the Mexican border, than among those voters allegedly most concerned about illegal border crossings."

"Yes, almost as if that's just a convenient canar...anyway, we can now give the statewide seats."

	Arizona		
	Lib          	669,842   	26.2%
	Nat          	563,370   	22.1%
	Prog          	491,325   	19.2%
	Cst          	361,932   	14.2%
	Con          	327,099   	12.8%
	All          	140,672   	5.5%
	Fus          	0         	0%
			
		Total	2,554,240
			
	MCs elected:		
			Lib
			Lib

"The Liberals have taken the top-up seats, yet another success for them."

"Yes, so Arizona, a medium-sized state, has given twelve of its twenty-nine seats to the Liberals, along with six each to the Progressives and Nationals, two to the Conservatives and three to the Constitution Party."

"Actually, given the number of top-up seats they've bagged along with others, it seems very unlikely the Liberals will be anything but the biggest party, and it would certainly be irresponsible to blow up those limited National successes in California to suggest the outcome is in doubt for clicks and to spread panic - but it's also way more fun, so let's do that."

Somewhere off-camera, perhaps far below the studio, a strange, rhythmic clanking sound could be heard.