Nebraska dips a toe in the Democratic pool

Several articles caught my eye when I was looking through the New York Times today. The one that interested me the most, however, was "Glory for Democrats, Riding on a Single Vote." The headline pulled me in because I was a little confused. Isn't the election already over?

I liked that the article answered my question immediately in the lead. "Yes, county election officials here are certainly aware that the presidential race is considered over and done." This lead seems like a cross between the anecdotal/narrative lead and the direct address lead (although it doesn't use the second person, it does seem to speak to the reader).

The article definitely lived up to my expectations. It talked about how people in Omaha, Nebraska are still counting ballots from last week's election. Though the state as a whole has already been called for Sen. John McCain, Nebraska is one of only two states in the country that splits its electoral votes (Maine being the other), and its final electoral vote is still up in the air.

Apparently, it looks like this final electoral vote will go to Sen. (and now President-Elect) Barack Obama, which is a big deal because Nebraska hasn't given any electoral votes to a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. I didn't realize that there were any counties in America still counting their ballots, so this article was a bit of an eye-opener.

The story was organized somewhat narratively. The author used qutoes from various people in Nebraska to support the main point that this area of the country is still counting their votes and that it looks like one of Nebraska's electoral votes will go to Obama. She also spent time explaining why Nebraska's taking their time counting their votes. As one man put it in the article, "You can either get instant results or quality results."

I learned that the fact that Obama is likely to receive Nebraska's final electoral vote is very momentous. Like much of the country, Nebraska is slowly becoming moer democratic. As one Democrat said in the article, this electoral vote "puts us Democrats on the map in a place where we've never really been on the map."

The only question I had left after reading the article was about what the final tally of votes is, but the article said that information won't be final until tomorrow.