Could Time Zones Be The Democrats Undoing in the West?

As you watch the election returns tonight I thought I'd rerun this piece from a few weeks ago.
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There are a number of races in the west that are polling very close right now.  The Senate seats in California, Nevada and Washington, plus the governor's race in California.  Historically Democrats should be favored in all of those races, but his isn't a typical election year and the fact that all are in the Pacific Time Zone may play to the GOP's advantage.  Even the Senate race in Colorado could be effected.

Since we do not have simultaneous poll closing times across the country, polls in many Eastern and Midwestern states will begin closing as much as four hours before they close in California.  The networks will begin making their calls and we'll have a pretty good idea how the night is going to shape up for the GOP well before Westerners stop voting.  If the GOP is having a big night in the East and Midwest, and especially if Dem incumbents are dropping like flies, you can expect Dem turnout in the West to be depressed as people who planned to vote after work may just decide to skip it.  Why bother voting if your party is still going to take a drubbing?

Here are the poll closing times across the U.S. (all times are Eastern)(courtesy of SwingStateProject.com):

We saw this happen in 1980 when Jimmuh Carter conceded the race before the polls closed out West, causing Dem voting to almost stop and costing a number of Democrats their races.  In 2000 something similar happened when the networks called the Florida race for Gore before the polls had closed in the Florida Panhandle, costing President Bush according to some studies as many as 10,000 votes in Florida and 2,000,000 votes across the many states which remained open for several more hours.  Without that early call Bush probably would not only have won Florida with a comfortable margin and avoided the recount and lawsuit nonsense that followed, but would have won the national popular vote as well.  Democrats used the popular vote for eight years to try and strip Bush's presidency of its legitimacy.  Even today they use that race to try and eliminate the Electoral College.

If it becomes obvious early that the GOP will retake the House and have a shot at the Senate, Democrats running in close races in the West will be in deep trouble.  Their voters will just go home.  Any Democrat holding a narrow lead going into Election Day is at risk.