This could be tricky in New York, due to the eo issued by cuomo.

That's because in 1980 Reagan was declared the winner before people on the West coast had a chance to finish voting. Which depressed the voting rolls, obviously.

I have a hard time seeing how a law in state A has any authority on media in state B. Its good policy, its totally appropriate, but enforceable law?

They've stuck with it, the majors, anyway.

Note that only applies to national races. States races will be called much earlier

Bush's cousin isn't working tonight.

vote in, it looks like XX (state) is going for (whomever)'. I always want to say WHAT? - wait 'til way more votes are in before you call it - I don't care what state it is.

You can easily project a state based on a few precincts.

Consider - if I told you that Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee had gone for Obama, could you call the national race? Absolutely you could. Since those are cherry red states, it's not as if you'd need to know how New York and California went.

You can do the same thing internally in states. If you have enough counties in Ohio, but are waiting on, say, Cincinatti and Cleveland, you don't need to sit around and wait to find out if Obama won those cities.

sound. (Hey, I'm very logical/rational 98% of the time). I just feel like something surprising might happen on rare occasion.

Are Bloggers allowed to call the election, if their blog only gets 100 hits a day and they're arent from the usa.

The major networks do not call states prior to poll closing as a courtesy. There is no legal requirement.

By convention, they do not do so.

There is no "requirement" that the news media refrain from reporting whatever they like.

until the polls close in a given state and until the polls close on the west coast to announce the national winner.

It is unseemly, but not illega in any way, shape or form.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/05/2012-election-night_n_2078385.html?utm_hp_ref=the-backstory

NEW YORK -- At 11 a.m. Tuesday, representatives from five TV networks and the Associated Press will head into the "quarantine room," an undisclosed location with no cell phone or Internet access.

That's where the National Election Pool -- ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and the AP -- start sifting through exit poll data provided by Edison Research. Six hours later, staffers will be permitted to start sending data to their respective news organizations, while additional exit polls, especially on the West Coast, keep coming in. While news outlets can begin reporting after 5 p.m. on some general trends they have observed in exit polls, such as whether voters consider the economy the most important issue in the 2012 election, they're not permitted to publish or broadcast any information that suggests which way a state is leaning until its polls close and actual vote numbers start streaming in.

Here: http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G12/closing.phtml?format=gc