patrick.net

If elections were held at the exact same time across the nation regardless of time zones, then people on the west coast would vote differently than those on the east coast. You'd have to be an early bird to vote on the eastern board and a night owl on the west. That means old people would be more likely to vote east and young people west. This is not desirable.

A better solution is simply to not reveal any preliminary results. This avoids the race situation without other unintended consequences.

I forgot about Hawaii which makes it a 6hr time zone delta...

fair enough, declare results at exactly the same time, done!

This is sometimes muttered by the losers after the fact, but I don't believe there has ever been an election where it has actually made the difference.

And then there are exit polls, which are sometimes available long before actual polls close. How do you correct for those?

Results will always be known more readily in the east because people go about their business earlier there.

The United States should be on two time zones, mountain and central, anyway. That would reduce the lag.

I tend to think this is a fact of life about elections; one of many factors which can affect the results. If you held an election 10 times, the stronger candidate might win only 8 of them. We'll never dial the randomness out of the process.

Dan8267 says

regardless of time zones