CNN and Fox election countdown clocks were an hour apart Tuesday, as though perhaps there was a "campaign savings time" that one network had missed.
While CNN was reporting that the first polls were closing at 6 p.m., with its countdown clock showing 10 minutes to go at 5:50, Fox News Channel's The Five on-screen clock was an hour behind, reporting that the first polls were closing at 7 p.m., with its countdown clock showing an hour and 10 minutes to go
Who was right?
Well, polls did start closing in Indiana and Kentucky starting at 6 p.m., but a Fox spokesperson said their 7 p.m. countdown was due to how they report the results in Kentucky and Indiana, where some of the polls did not close until 7 p.m. "[W]e don't call until the full state's polls have closed," she said.
That could mean Indiana results reporting could be delayed even more since CNN was reporting that some Indiana polls would not close until 8 due to some problems.
Common Cause monitors found lots of poll issues with malfunctioning or nonfunctioning voting machines and other issues.
Fox did say at one point that 7 p.m. was the "first major poll closing wave of the night." Meanwhile, CNN was issuing race alerts on the Indiana Senate contest between Mike Braun and Joe Donnelly as the early returns came in, as well as a key Senate race in Kentucky.
