PRESS RELEASE from ABC News
October 27, 2008
ABC
NEWS ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR ELECTION NIGHT TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer & George
Stephanopoulos to Anchor “Vote 2008” from the Crossroads of the World,
Times Square
Comprehensive Coverage to begin at 7pm ET and
Continue Throughout the Night as State-by-State Results Become Known
Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor live
coverage of election results across from the country on Tuesday,
November 4th. ABC’s “Vote 2008” will originate from the Crossroads of
the World, Times Square beginning with a special edition of “World News
with Charles Gibson” at 6:30pm ET and continuing with full election
coverage from 7:00pm ET until at least 2:00am ET. A special edition of
Nightline will air at 2:35am ET.
On election night, ABC News will transform Times Square into an outdoor
global viewing event, with thousands of people watching ABC News
coverage of real time election results on three iconic screens – ABC’s
Super Sign, the enormous digital façade of NASDAQ and the
23-story high Reuters sign. (Click to preview pictures of ABC News
signs in Times Square: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=6120046&page=1
) “Good Morning America Weekend” anchor Bill Weir will be in Times Square,
reporting on reaction to the results.
“Vote 2008” will report state-by-state results of the Presidential
election as well as key House, Senate and Gubernatorial races. Gibson,
Sawyer and Stephanopoulos will be joined on air by a team of ABC news
anchors, correspondents and analysts including:
- Senior Political Correspondent Jake
Tapper and John Berman
at Obama election headquarters in Chicago
- “Good Morning America Weekend” News Anchor Ron Claiborne and David Wright at McCain election
headquarters in Phoenix
- “Good Morning America Weekend” Anchor Kate Snow with Gov. Sarah Palin
- “Good Morning America” Anchor Robin Roberts and “Good Morning
America” News Anchor Chris Cuomo
reporting on reaction throughout the country
- Jim Avila monitoring
voting procedures with “Ballot Watch” reports
- Jonathan Karl reporting
from Capitol Hill on the next Congress
- Martha Raddatz reporting
from the White House
- Bianna Golodryga
monitoring reaction in the blogosphere
- Sharyn Alfonsi, Dan Harris, Jeffrey Kofman, David Muir and Pierre Thomas reporting live from
battleground states.
- Political analysts Cokie Roberts,
George Will, Donna Brazile and Matthew Dowd in Times Square Studios
and Torie Clarke in
Washington, DC
- ABC News Political Director David
Chalian and Polling Director Gary
Langer
- Presidential Historian Richard
Norton Smith
- Senior Foreign Correspondent Jim
Sciutto, Supreme Court correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg, Medical
Editor Dr. Timothy Johnson,
Iraq correspondent Terry McCarthy,
Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian
Ross and Business Correspondent Betsy
Stark reporting on the challenges facing the next administration
- College journalists from the ABC
News on Campus program reporting live from Arizona State
University, University of Florida, and the University of Texas at
Austin on the youth vote
On Election Night, Terry Moran and Cynthia McFadden will anchor a
special edition of “Nightline” at 2:35am ET from the candidate’s
election night headquarters in Chicago and Phoenix. They will be joined
by George Stephanopoulos.
ABCNEWS.com will provide four
live streams on Election Day, behind-the-scenes video and expert news
and analysis. The live streams will include ABC News NOW, McCain
Election Night Headquarters, Obama Election Night Headquarters, and a
roving stream that will access reports from ABC News reporters in
battleground states.
Live blogging led by Rick Klein,
senior political reporter and author of “The Note” http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1),
a team of ABC News reporters will cover the day on blogs including on
the Political Radar, George's Bottom Line, Political Punch, and Ballot
Watch, a new blog that will track voting irregularities.
ABCNEWS.com will also roll out a number of new and updated interactive
features for users, including: Real Time Results which will feature the
national vote count, electoral vote projections, and a ticker which
will display live results from up to five states simultaneously on the
Home Page of ABCNEWS.com. Individual state pages will also display
Presidential, Senate, House, and Gubernatorial results. An
interactive, rollover map featured on ABCNEWS.com will allow users to
view state-by-state results without a single click; results will
display electoral votes at state, live, raw presidential vote data and
a winner indicator; and Exit Polls which, for the first time, will be
available for search by the user giving an inside look on the process
by which networks analyze, interpret and display exit poll results.
Users can also get real time results on ABC News' mobile site (m.abcnews.com) and,
for the first time, can text or SMS state abbreviations for real time
results on Election Night.
ABC News NOW,
ABC’s 24-hour digital network currently available to 44 million users
across cable, broadband and mobile platforms, will provide coverage of
election night beginning at 7:00 PM ET and continuing until at least
11:00 p.m., ET. Coverage will also be available live on ABCNEWS.com’s
homepage, as well as the Politics section and the ABC News NOW section
online (http://www.abcnewsnow.com).
ABC’s Sam Donaldson and Rick Klein, will co-host the
coverage from ABC News studios in New York City.
ABC News Radio will provide
extensive coverage of election results. Correspondents Aaron Katersky and Cheri Preston will anchor live from
7:00p.m. until at least 1:00 a.m. ET. ABC News Radio’s team of
correspondents -- Vic Ratner, Ann Compton, Jim Ryan, and Alex Stone – will contribute
reporting and analysis from both campaigns; Steven Portnoy and Richard Davies will provide analysis
from the ABC News Decision Desk; Matt
Gutman and Pam Coulter
will report on voter turnout from Florida and Ohio; and Bob Schmidt will be in Washington,
DC reporting on the Congressional, Senatorial and Gubernatorial races.
ABC News Radio will provide six Election Coverage Status Reports each
hour starting at 7:00pm ET.
ABC’s Affiliate News Service NewsOne
will serve domestic and international clients on Election Night with Linsey Davis and Carla Wohl reporting from McCain
headquarters and Diana Alvear
and TJ Winick reporting from
Obama headquarters. Christianne Klein
will report on Congressional races, popular vote and voter turnout from
ABC News election headquarters in Times Square.
Marc Burstein is the executive producer of ABC News Special Events.
Roger Goodman, Vice President, ABC Special Projects is the director.
ABC News Media Relations Contact: Cathie Levine (212) 456-4934; cathie.levine@abc.com
- ABC -