After what felt like many endless months of news cycles on election coverage, the day finally arrived for all of the news anchors to put their election skills to the test. After many projection polls and predictions, the real results were laid down. The three main networks, Fox, MSNBC and CNN rolled out all the technology for hours and hours of calculated analysis and exit poll results on digital maps.

The election coverage started early for news networks, at 11 a.m. it was reported by the New York Times that representatives from five TV networks and the Associated Press would head into the “quarantine room” in an undisclosed location with no cell phone or internet access to gather exit poll data provided by Edison Research.

Starting at 5 p.m., the news networks with exit poll data in hand, could touch on general voter trends on topics like the economy, foreign policy and education.  They could not however, use the exit poll data to start predicting the results of the election in a particular state until the polls closed.

This election had more at stake. It came down to a very tight race and news reporters  expected to have a long night. Given the increase in social media like Twitter, news reporters made sure not to make too early of a call on polls in each state to avoid mistakes and misleading viewers. CNN reported Twitter having 41,000 election related teams per minute. A hot topic on Twitter was ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer who throughout the night slurred her speech, had trouble pronouncing the President’s name, and seems a little too over enthusiastic about the election results. Many speculated that she was drunk or had taken too many pills. Early this morning she tweeted that she had seen the tweets, “the good, bad and the funny”, she said.

All of the major news networks pulled out all the stops to make the election flashy and engaging for viewers. On CNN, they made the most use of their interactive maps, digging into state’s counties determining which ones to watch all the while having the exit polls tally up. CNN used the Empire State Building in New York City, NY, to display election results. As the votes came in the building lit up in red and blue.

Fox News had a multi-feed multimedia “launchpad” which was a big board featuring an interactive map similar to the one’s featured on CNN.  NBC turned the Rockefeller Center into “Democracy Plaza” where the skating rink had a map of the U.S. and as the results came in the states turned their respective color for the winning candidate.

DePaul student Zaineb Javaid decided to watch the election unfold on online news sites instead of on television.

“On live television you’re more prone to make mistakes. Online, you have more time to give the right information,” said Javaid.

Although, the online news sites like The Huffington Post, the New York Times and CNN.com weren’t always on the same page. At one point, Javaid saw that all three sites were reporting different electoral scores.

The news coverage seemed intent on covering every aspect of the election as they awaited the end of each hour for the polls to close.  

On MSNBC, Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow and Ed O’Neil talked to many members of the Obama and Romney camp. FOX news spoke to both campaign members as well and many conservative pundits like Karl Rove, who contested that Ohio could go to Romney and that could win him the election, since a republican president hasn’t won an election without Ohio.

Aside from keeping a close eye on the votes, the manner in which the votes were cast was another big story. Reports of long lines even after the polls closed, Racine, Wis., ran out of ballots, and issues with election judges.

A bit after 10 p.m., Obama clinched the important key battleground state of Ohio and was able to win re-election 274 electoral votes to Romney’s 203. After all of the votes were counted Wednesday, it was reported Obama won 303 electoral votes and Romney won 206.

As the night progressed, over at FOX News (known for leaning to the right), the atmosphere turned bleak. Once Obama’s re-election became imminent, Megyn Kelly announced that it was a close race discussing on the nation was split and republicans thought it was the right time to take over. She said the Obama campaign ran an aggressive campaign early on and that’s how they were able to win. The current economy didn’t help Obama, she said.  

Over at MSNBC (known to lean to the left), there was a celebration. Rachel Maddow indicated that this was an important election that proved to be a campaign of definition. She said that Romney wasn’t able to set clear values or sides, whereas Obama identified himself early on with middle class voters.  

DePaul student JoDelle Maglaya watched the victory of Obama on MSNBC.

“I think they did a good job of getting the reactions of people there,” she said.

The clear cutaway to shots of joyous celebration in Chicago and a disappointed crowd in Boston to closed the final moments of the 2012 election news cycle.