Live Election Night webcast, live blogging will provide election results

By Steve Vied, Messenger-Inquirer

The Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro Community & Technical College’s OCTV 71 and the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce will team to provide a live Internet election results show Tuesday night.

The two-hour webcast, hosted by Messenger-Inquirer Executive Editor Matt Francis and Chamber President Jody Wassmer, will be produced by OCTV staff. The webcast will begin at 6:30 p.m., a half hour after polls close.

Francis said the show will emanate from the OCTV studio. It will include up-to-the-minute election returns, focusing on Daviess County races, but will include coverage of regional races of interest.

“Basically, it will be similar to election recap shows done for many years on OCTV,” Francis said. “For various reasons, OCTV was unable to do it this year. We wanted to step in and fill that void and make sure there was a show that focused exclusively on local results. The primary focus will be on Daviess County, but we will try to keep tabs on regional races as well. Basically, we will take the show and broadcast it over the Web instead of TV.”

Francis said the election night webcast will be similar to the Messenger-Inquirer’s live webcasts of the “Gridiron Report” on high school football hosted by Sports Editor Scott Hagerman and sportswriter Jim Pickens at 2 p.m. every Monday and Thursday.

The election night show will be available at www.messenger-inquirer.com/election_night.

The newspaper’s main elections website will also provide results at www.messenger-inquirer.com/elections.

John Bryenton, the director of marketing and programming with Owensboro Community & Technical College’s OCTV, said funding cutbacks caused OCTV not to be able to produce the live television broadcast of election night returns this year. He said OCTV expects to resume live election night coverage in 2012.

“We’ve sort of been a staple for watching election returns,” Bryenton said. “But with the cutbacks, we didn’t have the manpower to do it this year. We’ll be back in a couple of years.”

Bryenton said viewers can watch OCTV 71 Tuesday and see a live scroll of election returns from the Daviess County Courthouse.

Wassmer has helped host OCTV’s election night show for several years. Doing it in over the Web instead of live TV will be the same from his perspective, he said.

“This is my first time for a webcast, but it’s a good service to the community I’m excited to be a part of it,” Wassmer said.

Also Tuesday night, Messenger-Inquirer Editorial Page Editor Owen Covington will produce a live blog report on the election results as they arrive. It will provide text updates of the results, along with commentary by Covington and other reporters who choose to participate. It will also provide links to other news media reporting on the election, conveying election news beyond the results.

Readers will also have the opportunity to post questions or comments about results that Covington or other reporters will respond to. Voters are encouraged to ask questions and make comments as the results come in.

“Before the Voting Booth” launches, expands Messenger-Inquirer’s campaign coverage

The Messenger-Inquirer has launched a first round of recorded editorial board interviews with this year’s crop of candidates.

For the past several weeks, the newspaper’s editorial board has been meeting with candidates and recording those discussions in an attempt to broaden and deepen the Messenger-Inquirer’s coverage of the 2010 elections. Over the next several weeks, more of these interviews will be added to “Before the Voting Booth,” a special section of the Messenger-Inquirer’s website at www.messenger-inquirer.com/elections that brings together campaign coverage in one spot.

This first round of videos provided through “Before the Voting Booth” includes interviews with the eight candidates for the Owensboro City Commission and the two candidates running for Daviess County judge-executive. Interviews with candidates for Daviess Fiscal Court and the Kentucky General Assembly will be posted in the next several weeks, followed by candidates for federal office.

Each candidate in each race was asked the same set of questions by the editorial board, and the complete responses are grouped by question to provide more opportunity for comparison. In addition, each candidate’s interview is also included in its entirety on the website. Candidates were provided with a list of general topics for discussion and were allowed to bring notes to the interview but were not provided the specific questions in advance.

“Before the Voting Booth” also includes a link to additional campaign coverage video and “The Polling Place,” the newspaper’s elections blog that compiles coverage of local and state races this year and additional information about candidates. The blog is updated as new coverage appears in the Messenger-Inquirer and will be a home for election night coverage on Nov. 2.

Hopefully this new resource will provide more information to voters before they head to the polls next month and allow them to make educated decisions about who should represent this community.

Contact Editorial Page Editor Owen Covington at (270) 691-7296 or ocovington@messenger-inquirer.com with feedback.

Follow the M-I’s live blogging coverage of election results

You can follow along with the Messenger-Inquirer as the results come in tonight.

Using CoverItLive, we’ll be providing live blogging coverage and commentary as the votes are counted.

Click Here to view the live blogging coverage, which is headed by Editorial Page Editor Owen Covington.

Join the Messenger-Inquirer on Election Night

This election season, the Messenger-Inquirer is trying to offer a broad range of information about the candidates and contests and in-depth coverage of the issues.

This site – The Polling Place – has been one of the tools we’re using to try to accomplish the goal of educating voters leading up to Election Day. The response has been positive, and hopefully we’ve provided good resources for voters.

On Tuesday night, the Messenger-Inquirer will be trying something new by providing live-blogging coverage beginning at 5 p.m. once the results start to come in. After the polls close, the staff of the Messenger-Inquirer will be working on a steady stream of results and analysis as they come in and will provide information about turnout and how voting went on Election Day.

CLICK HERE after 5 p.m. Central on Tuesday night to follow the Messenger-Inquirer’s coverage. You can also click on the same link before Tuesday night to schedule an e-mail reminder to follow the coverage.

We hope The Polling Place and the Messenger-Inquirer’s coverage have been assets, and will continue to be, during this year’s election season. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Editorial Page Editor Owen Covington at ocovington@messenger-inquirer.com.

Welcome to The Polling Place

With The Polling Place, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer is seeking to provide a site that allows voters access to information about the candidates running for office this year, links to election-related Web sites and more information about casting your vote.

The Messenger-Inquirer will be providing candidate profiles for the main contested local and state government races during this year’s primary election, and this site helps pull all of that information together in one place. Races without contested primaries – where only one or no candidate from a party has filed to run – aren’t being profiled by the Messenger-Inquirer during the primary season, but you’ll find coverage from those top races in advance of the general election on Nov. 2.

Check out profiles of individual candidates grouped by race using the links to the right, or read the M-I’s general coverage of the 2010 elections.

If you’re interested in writing a letter to the editor in support of a candidate, be sure to read our election letter guidelines. The deadline for election letters to run before the May 18 primary has passed. Election letters can still be submitted anytime before the November election, but only those submitted by May 7 will appear before the primary election.

Feel free to comment on the content here, but this will not be a forum for mudslinging or negative attacks. The guidelines for election letters apply generally to comments left on this site, which will be subject to the approval of the Messenger-Inquirer prior to appearing. Offer your thoughts about why someone is the best person for the job, not why they aren’t.

Use the search box at the right to find information about individual races or you can search by a candidate’s name to find each mention of the candidate on this site.

The links at the right allow you to take a closer look at each race, with links to candidate profiles and information about the offices voters will be selecting leaders for this year.

Also to the right find links to candidate websites and other resources relating to campaign finance, the election calendar and voter registration.

You can click here to see a sample ballot for this year’s primary election in Daviess County. Not sure where to vote? Click here to find what precinct you are in and click here to view a list of polling places.

The goal of The Polling Place is to help voters be more educated about the issues and the candidates before heading into the voting booth this year. Hopefully you leave this site with a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities confronting your community, and the people who want to be elected to lead. This is a work in progress that will be updated through Election Day.

If you have questions about election coverage, please contact City Editor Bob Bruck at (270) 691-7306 or bbruck@messenger-inquirer.com. If you have questions about this site or would like a link to a candidate’s website added here, please contact Editorial Page Editor Owen Covington at (270) 691-7296 or ocovington@messenger-inquirer.com.

Feel free to leave comments about the site below as well as suggestions for additional information we can provide.