Bloggers lead the way in election reporting

The front lines of Election Night reporting criss-crossed the blogosphere, The New York Times reports

Bloggers were reporting on voting machine meltdowns and ballot shortfalls all through the night. But readers didn't have to take the writers' word for it. Proof was being posted on YouTube throughout the evening.

RedState.com, the conservative journal, heralded a “massive meltdown in Pennsylvania” early in the day, citing “widespread reports of an electoral nightmare shaping up in Pennsylvania with certain types of electronic voting machines.”

Erick Erickson, RedState’s chief blogger, also included a report of poll watcher intimidation in Philadelphia, along with a link to a video on YouTube that appeared to show a certified poll observer (armed with a video camera) being blocked from a polling station.

The power of the new media revolution was also found in the posting of audio files of phone calls voters made to the political bloggers. Many of these were posted on sites, so readers could hear the voter's unfiltered report.

The liberal Talking Points Memo listed a litany of issues around the country: computer problems that caused long lines in Denver; polling stations that stayed open later in Indiana after voting problems and delays; votes for Claire C. McCaskill in the Missouri Senate race that somehow registered for her opponent, Jim Talent; complaints that crashed an Ohio county phone system.

After all the hype about an e-voting meltdown, even the bloggers agreed, the evening went pretty much as expected. Hardly flawless but par for the course when you roll out so much new technology.

Ed Morrissey of the conservative Captain’s Quarters blog said traffic to his site yesterday was about two or three times normal. But Mr. Morrissey added that though he had heard some talk of voting woes, he thought on the whole they were “pretty minor” and would not have any effect on the overall outcome.