Ahem. Please excuse the odd title – I have been watching election results come in live for ten years now and a tradtion has grown up that I always have chocolate rice-crispie cakes of some kind while doing so.

This sugary tradition is even more important when, like tonight, the election is happening five hours behind the time-zone you live in. Lots of tea, chocolate and sugar today! I also need help keeping awake this year because it’s the first time in a while that I have been up for an election but without access to a TV. While I was living in London I crashed other people’s election parties (yes, we Politics geeks do have such things) or was at my folks’ house.

One of the things that I like reading about during elections in the US are the state-specific amendments and some of the senate races. They don’t get much coverage in the UK sadly and you have to hunt to find out more. Al Jazeera has done a good run down of some of the more interesting non-Presidential issues.

Of the ‘other US elections’ highlighted in that last link I am really interested to see where the three votes on same-sex marriage go. It’s an issue I care deeply about but also all three states that have amendments on the table are solid Democrat states. One to watch…or rather, three.

There are a few really interesting amendments being looked at. The California Proposition 34 is set to abolish the Death penalty. The LA Times article can be found over here. Strangely (or perhaps not) most of the pieces I have read about this have been focused on the cost to the State of life-imprisonment vs. death penalty.

One of the issues I’ve been following closely has been LR-120 out in Montana about Parental Notification for abortions. Many states already have this so it’ll be interesting to see which way Montana votes.

The Orlando Sentinel has done a pretty comprehensive run-down of the twelve amendments being proposed in Florida this election. An important state it has been in the news even more over voters having trouble getting into polling stations. Not helped by things like this of course…

This is a great article about North Carolina (a state I particularly love) as a swing state. It’s from the Duke Chronicle – the newspaper from Duke University. Top tip here – if you want to read very passionate and well researched journalism from the USA you could do a lot worse than reading the College papers and magazines.

Colorado is another interesting swing state – there are some great county stories to watch out for. The Denver Post has done a run-down of what to watch.

I love this. I am a true politics geek at heart, even now I am no longer working directly in politics it doesn’t affect me any less. Even though the election is based in the USA the world is so small now we are deeply influenced by decisions in every country.

As I keep reading throughout the night I might pop another post up with some more links. Tonight I will be reading the NYTimes, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Guardian, NPR and as many local online news sites as possible, especially for the states I’ve been watching for Senate seats and key amendments. And if it all gets a bit much then I’ll watch an episode of ‘The West Wing’ and pretend all is well!

Vick.