The huge time zone difference between Hawai’i and the East Coast (currently 5 hours) is often the subject of mockery by residents. Tonight’s first results will be out around 2:00 PM Hawai’i time, meaning that local polls will be open a good four hours more. This gives plenty of opportunity for group-think voting, as well as allowing the rest of the nation to usually ignore us, since the polls close 11:00 PM EST.

This year, perhaps, the time zone gap is even more significant. With John Kerry and George W. Bush so close in the polls nationwide, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if people were at least a little more interested in the results. (Then again, if pollsters were off and the race isn’t as close as predicted, we’ll be relegated to the usual ho-hum excitement ).

Election 2004 Series