From the Elections

I'm at the Marriott inside the Secretary of State's Press Room with Nola.com covering the elections. The polls will be closing soon and announcements are being made to explain how the returns will be handled. It's an experience to see the behind the scenes of this as a media event. Local and national TV, AP reporters, and the TP & Nola staffers and contract workers all covering what is probably the most important election in New Orleans history.

The next press conference is at 8:30 and several of the TV stations have been reporting that none of the returns have come in yet. To the right of me CNN is getting ready for a report, placing a small step in front of the camera for their reporter, and what was a bunch of standing around drinking coffee and mindless chatter is turning into what you'd expect from a news event.

It's also at times like this I realize just how slow I type compared to many of the journalists here.

More later...

: CNN brought in Susan Roesgen.

: The crunch is over and it looks like it will come down to Ray vs. Mitch in the runoff next month. The furvor that was common between 8:45 and about 10:15 has died down. People are polishing stories and cutting segments. There's even one person playing Freecell.

: We're waiting on the absentee ballots. One of the election staff said we were about five minutes away from and announcement and info. Everyone who remained hurried to get ready for the results and waited.