Reply #276: The Dukakis Pennsylvania call

[Yupster]

was from my memory. Maybe I'll google after work if I have time.

Anyway, in 1988 I was a high school history teacher and I sent the kids home on election day with a map to color in as each state was called and a list of states in order of how Republican or Democratic they were.

In other words there was a list of states with their electoral votes according to their Republican tendencies Utah first, etc until I got to about 290 electoral votes.

There was a similar list for Democratic states starting with DC, etc going for 290 electoral votes.

I told the kids they had to watch the electoral returns on tv and when a state was called they were to color in the state (Republican was blue back then) and also cross out the state on whichever list or lists it was on either blue or red.

The point was to show the kids which states were important and who was winning. I told them they could go to bed when either list started having the other color on it.

For instance if Dukakis won Maryland it didn't mean anything because it was # 10 on his must win state list. But if Dukakis won Illinois it meant a lot because that was at the very bottom of his must win list and if Dukakis won Ohio, the election was over because that wasn't even on his must win list. I thought Dukakis had a good chance to win so I was hoping for an exciting night and a meaningful exercise. It didn't work as well in 84 except kids were able to say Reagan won very early in the evening.

Pennsyvania was a strong memory because it was a teaching moment. Many of the kids came in with it colored red for Dukakis even though at about 2 am it became apparent it was going for Bush.

I told everyone to look at the 6 o clock news the next night to see how they explained the wrong call, and the answer was they didn't.

In back of the anchorman the election map still sat just like it was the night before, but while the night before the map had Pennsylvania colored red, for the evening news it had mysteriously switched to blue without any explanation.

I remember having a nice laugh with the 120 or so students that next day on the subject of having your own news show means never having to say you're sorry.

Anyway, hope that helps.