Hundreds of millions of Americans will be able to follow the incoming election results in minor detail tomorrow, down to turnout in specific counties, and it will be treated as an evolving news story through the day.
How does that compare to a century ago? If I were a cosmopolitan banker in Manhattan, or a ranch hand in Oklahoma, what did I likely know and when did I likely know it? What if I were a county party chair in those same places?
Bonus points for anyone who'd like to discuss earlier eras as well. And thanks for your time.
People found out from newspapers and newspapers found out through the telephone and telegraph, as election officials reported vote totals to the Associated Press and other news organizations.
That year was a particularly close election, so the morning after the election there was no winner. One of the swing states was California. By Friday or Saturday, virtually all newspapers called the election for Wilson. It took the challenger, Charles Evans Hughes, two more weeks before he actually conceded since the RNC demanded some recounts. The California vote was particularly close.
That's basically how election news worked from the mid-1800s until radio became widespread in the late 1920s.
Before that, it worked pretty much the same, but slower without telegraph or telephone. But you were still likely to have heard it from a newspaper, or from somebody who read one. The election was usually called for one candidate or another within two or three weeks of the election.