Why is NBC calling it with 24% in? It makes little sense to me.

[boxman15]

I'd imagine most of these results are coming from rural areas and smaller towns, where there aren't as many votes to count. You'd expect returns like this.

CNN, ABC, hell even Fox aren't calling it yet. Exit polls indicate a much closer race.

[Lifelong Protester]

1. I agree with you

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. The county by county results show Walker winning repub areas by bigger margins than in 2010

Barrett is winning DEM areas by less. Looks like a blowout. sorry.

[rosesaylavee]

3. The polls are still open, right?

The polls close at 9 pm.

The judges are still counting in theory.

I don't get it and I don't like that they did it.

[TheMightyFavog]

6. They close at 8

[TheWraith]

8. Uh, it's 10 PM now. Polls have been closed for over an hour. nt

[elleng]

4. Look at these current/live results from every county:

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/wisconsin-recall-results

[boxman15]

9. Well I take it back.

CNN is calling it now too.

[elleng]

13. Sorry that you have to.

[TheWraith]

5. I'm guessing, but they're probably correlating versus exit polls.

Exit polls aren't accurate enough on their own absent a big landslide, but if you take the exits and compare them to the reported results area by area, you can get a better feel for accuracy. For instance if the exits show Walker by 4, and each area matches it's exits or trends stronger for Walker, it would seem to hold up. At least, that's my assumption based on what they've done in the past.

[Luminous Animal]

7. I think when the returns from Milwaukee County started coming in, they

felt confident about the call.

[Logical]

10. Pure math. n-t

[cynatnite]

11. It'll probably wind up being much closer, but calling it this early is not that unusual. n/t

[Cleita]

14. Seems like the same tactic used in the Bush vs Gore election.

I guess it's designed to discourage people from voting late who hadn't, however, I don't know the rational this time since they did wait until the polls closed.

[otohara]

15. To Prove Their Not Liberal - Comcast

I called Comcast last week to check out their broadband and ended up talking to a guy in Pakistan.
I hung up.