Newsroom gears up for election night

Goose-bump moments. We all have them.

Sometimes, they come at unexpected times. I was fortunate enough recently to visit Hawaii, and while there my wife and I took a "duck" tour of Honolulu that included a trip to Pearl Harbor.

As we motored around the city in a ridiculously yellow amphibious landing craft, our guide pointed out various sites and played kitschy songs by the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Don Ho, etc.

Campy doesn't begin to describe the experience.

But as we turned toward the gates of the Pearl Harbor visitors center, the music switched from Elvis' "Rock-a-Hula Baby" to a stirring rendition of "Anchors Aweigh" -- and this son of a World War II Navy veteran found himself covered in goose bumps from head to toe.

Choking up doesn't begin to describe the experience.

. . .

And sometimes, goose bumps rise even when we're expecting them. We can't help ourselves.

I'm expecting such a moment on Tuesday night as the newsroom of

The Richmond Times-Dispatch ramps up its coverage of the state elections.

After the polls close at 7 p.m., the tedious process of counting the votes begins. We won't have an official count on Tuesday night, but The Associated Press will be gathering data from the across the state and delivering it to customers.

At some point during the evening, someone in The Times-Dispatch newsroom will bellow out: "AP has called it for (fill in the blank)."

That moment always gets me. You almost can feel the transition beginning from one po-litical era to another. It also reminds me of why working at a newspaper can be so exhilarating: We know things as they happen.

On election night, the newsroom moves into a higher gear as we hustle to bring a complete report of the results to our Tuesday online readers and our Wednesday newspaper readers.

The planning for election coverage began weeks ago. At this point, we expect to have about a dozen stories that will address, among other things, the results for the statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general; control of the House of Delegates; and local elections in the Richmond area.

We also are prepared to report on any problems that crop up at polling places around the state.

In addition to those stories, we plan to provide a half-dozen charts that break down results from across the state and the Richmond area. For the political junkies among us, those charts provide our annual fix as we pore over the figures and do our own analysis of how the races were won and lost.

And for those of us more visually inclined, we'll have a map of Virginia that will show which gubernatorial candidate won each city and county.

But long before the polls close Tuesday night, we'll be busy reporting on the election through our other media: TimesDispatch.com, Facebook.com, and Twitter.

Look for updates throughout the day on TimesDispatch.com in our live election blog. Our Web site also will have photo slideshows and video reports, and we'll have a video analysis by the members of our political coverage team.

We'll do our best to make sure you're fully informed about the elections. Whether the outcome gives you goose bumps is up to you.

Brice Anderson is night editor. Contact him at (804) 649-6644 or .