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Election Night '84 - 8:00
November 6th, 1984

8:00 PM

Decision ‘84 Election Night is under way. Here from the NBC election news center in New York is Tom Brokaw and Roger Mudd.


Good evening, everyone, it is now 8 pm Eastern Standard time and a lot of key states have just closed their polls, in addition to a few states that closed before the start of our broadcast. So let’s kick things off by taking a look at the calls we can make as of right now.

NBC is projecting the states of West Virginia and Kentucky will go to Governor Richard Lamm; meanwhile the state of Vermont is projected to cast its three electoral votes for President John Anderson. Nothing much unexpected at this hour from these results and- I’m also being told we can add the District of Columbia to Governor Lamm’s column.



Anderson: 3
Lamm: 18


In other important news of the hour, we’re being told that judges in Missouri, Ohio, Florida, and Illinois have ordered that polls are to remain open late. This comes on the back of reports of massive voter participation across the country and increased security in light of recent political violence. Many other states have engaged similar legal mechanisms to allow for this surge in public engagement, and we expect similar rulings from across the country as the evening continues. As a result we may be in for some late calls tonight, but again we can kick things off with Kentucky, West Virginia, and DC for Lamm, and Vermont for Anderson.

This is a not very surprising early lead for Lamm; Democrats traditionally take the early lead with that boost they so often get from the South, though that’s become less reliable in recent years. And of course now is as good a time as any to remind you that tonight is expected to be anything but traditional. We turn to Roger Mudd for more context on this historic election.

Thanks, Tom. Well the main concern tonight has been, for many people, the recent spate of violence that began with the shooting of candidate James Buckley. At least nine deaths and hundreds of injuries have occurred across the nation since October 27th. It was feared that the state of emergency called by President Anderson might diminish turnout, or, even worse, presage violence on election day.

Happily, we can report that this has largely been a peaceful day. There were 20 or so arrests at a Conservative march that got out of hand in upstate New York this afternoon, and a few more minor incidents here and there across the country, but by-and-large, things seem to have calmed down and voter turnout is expected to break modern records.

Still, for many campaigns the damage was done.


And for more on this story let’s turn quickly to Tim Russert...

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