J Town 11/01, with News You Might Have Missed

Some milestone moments in journalism converged 60 years ago on election night in the run between Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower and Democratic Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson. It was the first coast-to-coast television broadcast of a presidential election. Walter Cronkite anchored his first election night broadcast for CBS.

And it was the first time computers were brought in to help predict the outcome. [...]

Before election night 60 years ago, the race between Stevenson and Eisenhower looked close. But early in the night, with just over 3 million votes counted, UNIVAC predicted the odds were 100 to 1 in favor of Eisenhower.

Even early returns, without the aid of a computer, were indicating an Eisenhower landslide. But the odds still seemed inconceivable. The computer printout, revealed hours later, read: "It's awfully early, but I'll go out on a limb ... The chances are now 00 to 1 in favor of the election of Eisenhower." The printout read 00 instead of 100 because the programmers never imagined needing an odd greater than two digits.

From now until election day, J Town will Republish (and spotlight in our Got Post? table) personal stories of GOTV: phonebanking and canvassing and support. If you find such a story and you are a Contributor, Republish it to our group queue. If you are not a Contributor, message one of the Editors directly (don't message the Group because we will not get notified!) and we will Republish it. We are looking for personal stories of real life activism, not just links to phonebanking sites. Thank you in advance for your contributions!!