election day info for IN and NC

Polls close in Indiana at 6pm local time (yes, 6pm! I confirmed with two sources... it should be illegal for polls to close so early); however, Indiana is one of four states in more than one time zone (the other three are Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky). Most of Indiana is on EDT. However 12 counties use CDT: Lake, Porter, Laporte, Newton, Jasper, Starke Counties in northwest Indiana and Gibson, Posey, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer and Perry Counties in southwest Indiana. Thus, if networks and cable news follow the rule of not calling a race until all polls in the state have closed, Indiana will be called, at the earliest, at 7pm EDT. Trivia on Indiana's time zone debacle at the bottom.

Polls close in North Carolina at 7:30pm EDT.

Voters in both states who are illegally prevented from voting or have other voting concerns can contact the national Election Protection project's hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, from 9am to 6pm EDT. Election Protection is a legitimate operation; I've volunteered for them in the past, and they're led by prominent progressive advocacy and legal groups such as the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's National Campaign for Fair Elections, the NAACP, the National Bar Association, and People For the American Way Foundation. For more information, visit the National Campaign For Fair Elections website.

Okay, here's the trivia. Indiana has a long history with time zones, dating back to 1942 when Daylight Savings Time was instituted nationwide to conserve energy during World War II. Here's the rundown for why there's controversy at all from Wikipedia:

The Indiana time zone debate remains controversial. Many argue that the entire state should move to Central Time, while many others believe the state should return to the non-observance of DST. This controversy is deeply rooted in Indiana.

With a large agricultural heritage, many farmers oppose DST because their days are controlled by the sun; not the clock. During daylight savings, the sun rises an hour later, costing farmers sixty minutes of valuable morning productivity. Farmers are often dependent on young children whose parents want them home by dinner, and when the sun is up later in the evening, farmers miss out on recreational activities that only happen late. When the sun is still up at 8:30 or 9pm, the farmer is still in the field, while others have been off work for hours.

Opponents of putting the entire state on one time zone often cite out-of-state cities as their reason of opposition. For example, counties in Northwestern Indiana border and commute to and from the metropolis of Chicago, Illinois for business and pleasure. Chicago is on Central Time. Counties in the southeastern corner of the state are suburbs of cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, who both observe Eastern Time. In the southwestern corner of the state, Evansville, Indiana serves as the central hub of a tri-state area that includes southern Illinois and western Kentucky (both on Central Time).

Supporters of daylight saving time (DST) and a common time zone in Indiana often claim Indiana must adopt the time-keeping system of the rest of the nation to preserve business. It is believed that Indiana businesses have lost hours of productive time with out-of-state colleagues because the time quirks are just too confusing to keep track of on a daily basis.

Detractors of daylight saving time point out that scientific studies assessing the impact of the time policy change to DST in Indiana have identified a significant increase in energy usage and spending on electricity by Indiana households. Indiana households paid an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills according to University of California, Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant. While opponents of Daylights Saving Time point to studies such as Professor Kotchen, the Department of Transportation and organizations such as the California Energy Commission claim that the United States saves approximately 1% of energy when Daylight Saving Time is being observed.

West Wing fans will remember that Josh and Toby miss their flight back to D.C. due to confusion over Indiana's time zones in the Season 4 two-part premiere 20 Hours in America.