Bye, bye Needle.
Photo-Illustration: Eagle

A way to stave off anxiety this election night? You don’t even have new york Times the electoral needle to watch. NYT choice the needle—along with Steve Kornacki, your horrified mother calling you, and the cigarettes you smoke even though you don’t actually smoke these days—is one of the true icons of Election night in the digital age. As the states spin, the needle, like a great, languid leviathan, moves toward the winning side. It’s very scary. This year, however, Times‘ technology workers I’m on strike over racial disparities in wages and for job security, so the needle may not be moving at all.

Nate Cohn, Chief Political Analyst at Times, wrote a thread on X about the needle in a post-strike world, noting that, like this election (sorry), the presence of the needle was a toss-up. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to publish The Needle,” he said. “There are good reasons to bet against him, although there may be scenarios where things go very well; alternatively, I hit bugs at the start and there’s no chance.” Not to sound pessimistic, but “hope maybe this will go really well” is not usually a winning plan for success during US elections. Maybe we should ask Ann Selzer if the needle will flow?