Bye needle.
Photo Illustration: Vulture

One way to curb fears this election night? I don't even have a New York Just Election pin to look at. The NYT election pin is — along with Steve Kornacki, your frightened mother calling you, and the cigarettes you smoke even though you don't smoke these days — one of the true icons of election night in the digital age. As states are added, the needle moves just inches toward the winning side like a large, sluggish leviathan. It's very scary. This year, however Just“Tech workers are striking over racial pay gaps and job security, so the needle may not move at all.”

Nate Cohn, the senior political analyst at the Justwrote a thread on “I don't know if we can publish the needle,” he said. “There are good reasons to bet against it, although there may be scenarios where everything goes super smoothly; Alternatively, we'll run into mistakes at the beginning and there's no chance.” This isn't meant to sound too pessimistic, but “we're hoping this might go quite smoothly” isn't usually a winning plan for success in a US election. Maybe we should ask Ann Selzer if the needle is moving?