In the world of online news consumption, one definition of hell on Earth has to be Election Night on dial-up access, followed closely by ?Homer Simpson-talking beer opener? spam.

Even so, it seems a little uncharitable to grouse about getting election results at 46k baud. After all, the first time I followed an election on the Web back in the Wild West days of 1994 I think I was lucky to get 14.4 while I watched the results trickle in at the California state election site. Far richer pages now take a minute or so to load -- except for a few extraordinarily slow servers -- and shouldn?t be that tough to swallow.

Still, after the glitch that took down my ISDN for most of the day was fixed life online was smoother. And when I hit my local coffee shop  with the just-installed high-speed WiFi access free with purchase this morning it was downright breezy. (Of course, the espresso and chocolate donut could have had a little to do with that sensation.)

That?s not to say news sites made it difficult for dial-up users. On the contrary -- the RealOne software used for ABCNews.com and CNN.com?s premium video subscriptions even figured out that my connection had been downgraded and offered to adjust accordingly. Audio, video and graphic compression make it much easier to provide quality at dial-up speeds.

	MSNBC offered sophisticated images.

It?s just that life in the fast lane opens up far more programming options as so capably shown by MSNBC.com?s broadband production ?The Big Picture.?  This sophisticated offering provided a well-written and produced video primer along with ample interactive opportunities, including the chance to zero in on issues of personal interest. The cynic in me says this is the time to remind you that providing quality material inaccessible to those without broadband is also a way of capturing subscribers for high-speed service like that offered by one MSNBC parent, Microsoft.

The first broadband election hasn't happened yet. That can?t be until most U.S. Internet users are online at speeds of 1 meg or more. But it offered a glimpse into that future, one full of promise.

Given the current trend toward high-speed at work and dial-up at home, many users with instant-on, full-tilt access at work go home to a different online experience at night. That can be frustrating on special occasions, like this election, where most of the information comes in after or before business hours

	KQED: better looking, easier to navigate

Just as frustrating, according to the nice man who put in that WiFi access point, is waking up in the morning to results pages that haven?t been updated in hours. He found stale information at several sites, even a couple that he was sure had current results somewhere if only he could find the magic link. KQED.org in San Francisco solved that problem for some races and referendums by referring visitors to the California Secretary of State results page when it stopped updating at 11:30 p.m. The public radio site also had one of the better- looking election results pages and a section that was easy to navigate. I got there via NPR.org?s spotlight on member sites; unfortunately, the election coverage wasn't easy to find when I went back through the front page this morning.

	LATimes.com waits for its print story.

While sites like Channel 3000 in Wisconsin were reporting on the elections throughout the evening, I woke up this morning to a note from a California correspondent frustrated by the lack of updated reporting beyond a results chart at LATimes.com. ?I tried all night to use the site to stay up on what?s happening and it was a total dud,? the message concluded. A follow-up message said the first local election story posted at 11:30 p.m. Hard to believe a news operation like LATimes.com would wait for the print story to be filed instead of getting files throughout the night. When I tried to use the site?s results box for the governor?s race it was a mess of duplicated lines.

RockyMountainNews.com not only provided thorough ongoing coverage, it showed users who was doing the work by putting up a newsroom Web cam. More important, the site offered those users a variety of ways to access information about the elections that mattered most to them -- by ZIP Code, by county, by candidate. It would have been even better if the main page was shorter and easier to wade through. RockyMountainNews.com and the DemocratandChronicle.com in Rochester, New York, take the process a step further through a partnership with e.thePeople. Users can write letters to politicians, organize petitions, learn more about issues, start discussions and suggest future polls.

	CNN Scorecard

As much as I enjoyed ?The Big Picture,? I was far less smitten by MSNBC.com?s effort to personalize the election. The idea was sound -- use the same ZIP-Code database that?s already in place for localizing news and weather to drill down into elections. The reality didn?t go deep enough and I couldn?t figure out how to refresh the results without typing the ZIP Code in again.

CNN.com?s personalization worked better for me. While other users were trying to figure out the logic behind the SpatiaLogic Mapping, I was busy refreshing my CNN scorecard featuring my choice of 10 races or issues to track. With a click of the refresh button and a quick scan of the screen I could see at a glance the status of each race, what percentage of precincts were in and whether the race had been called by CNN. I could delve into county by county results, which came in handy when I was trying to figure out which counties were still out in Missouri at 12:30 a.m. This feature had a couple of flaws -- it?s not mobile, meaning it had to be set up separately on every computer I used and clicking on a link that I thought would explain the map instead took me to the map company?s site. 

CBSMarketwatch.com had its own version of a scorecard that at first glance looked promising. Instead it was literally a score card of thought-to-be-tough races that users could print out and take home to follow. I spend lots of time at this site; I can safely say this was one of the most useless links I?ve ever followed there. Actual coverage was much better, including the spotlight on Harvey Pitt?s departure, which was getting secondary play on a lot of general news sites.

	CBSNews.com ahead with local results.

Following results from site to site was a tad trickier.  By 9 p.m. on Election Night, just as some races were getting murkier, one axiom for using online election results was becoming clearer to me: unless you want to fry your mind, stick to one site for election results, two at the most.

At one point I had at least five screens open to mind-bogglingly different results. CBSNews.com was far ahead, with local results in Missouri at 9:15 p.m. while another site was showing a win for the U.S. House in my district and a different site was showing no results for that district at all.

The reasons for this varied as much as the ways the sites were gathering information.

	NYTimes made ample use of news alerts.

It didn?t occur to me to use WSJ.com as an Election Night source until SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt?s resignation sent me scurrying to the site. The Online Journal had a new look for the night, the online equivalent of putting major news not just above the fold but above the masthead.

At NYTimes.com, new editor Len Apcar?s crew was making ample use of news alerts in red at the top of the page as key races were called or other events occurred. As much as I appreciate the enhanced sense of urgency at the site, the alerts were disconcerting in this context. I?d have preferred some kind of obvious election bulletin, leaving the alerts for non-election related news that deserved particular attention.

Washingtonpost.com pulled out all the usual big event features including a live chat with Robert Kaiser, who responded to a question about the Minnesota race by saying he missed the Mondale-Coleman debate because he was on a plane -- as though the event was limited to real-time instead of being available online. The whole dialogue was a combination of visiting the oracle at Delphi and using the Magic 8 ball.

ChicagoTribune.com was collecting comments from users for publication in its new youth-oriented tabloid Red Eye, which doesn?t have a real site of its own. I?m sure it seemed like a good idea to someone at some point but all it did for this visitor was highlight the branding confusion between the print edition of the Tribune (a paper I have written for often), Red Eye and ChicagoTribune.com.

		I can?t say that any one site still completely gets it -- or gets it completely right -- when elections are at hand, but a lot of sites came very close.

One other feature at washingtonpost.com caught my eye: a U.S. map  with links to local television partners around the country. It was spotty in places -- nothing in Minnesota, for instance -- but useful. Gimmicks aren?t what brings me back to that site, though. It?s the reporting that makes the OnPolitics section a magnet for me. Ditto for ABCNews.com?s The Note, an e-mail newsletter devoted to making sense out of the cascades of political information on a daily basis. My favorite from today?s edition of five questions to ponder while the writers catch up with the day?s events: Will Times columnist Paul Krugman move to Canada or Europe?

Both ABCNews.com and CNN.com made good use of their subscription-only video with timely customized reports and headlines although I haven?t mastered the art of viewing them on my Real player. Switching the browser window to ABCNews.com while I was watching CNN?s QuickCast stopped the CNN feed and switched me automatically to ABCNews.com video. As much as I wanted to see the ABC rundown of the night?s events, I?d rather it be my choice. This is one aspect that could be made clearer. One plus for dejected Democrats seeking relief from smirking talking heads on cable news shows: You can watch the Sharon Osbourne interview with Barbara Walters instead or go back to the Bruce Springsteen Nightline. Meanwhile, Republicans who still need a fix can go online for election coverage instead of watching Winona Ryder?s verdict come in.
 
I can?t say that any one site still completely gets it -- or gets it completely right -- when elections are at hand, but a lot of sites came very close. Those that came closest understand the need for simple navigation, a mix of timely results and analysis, interactive features that make sense and access to information that matters.

Conventional wisdom says the next race starts as soon as the votes for the last one are tallied. If news sites take that same approach, whatever the online landscape (or the political one) looks like two years from now Election 2004 should be a victory for everyone.