With many states in close contention Tuesday night, news networks in the U.S. watched the developing poll numbers closely.

FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC used a variety of technologies, some new, to keep the night interesting for viewers.

FOX News was the first to call the state of Ohio for Senator Barack Obama.

Throughout the evening,  they used a screen that analyzed voter demographics.

“And who’s helping Barack Obama? Let’s start with the evangelicals, on the exit polls and on the launch pad. Not a huge surprise, white evangelical Christians going 70 percent for John McCain, 29 percent going for Barack Obama. Nearly one in three voters in Ohio is a white evangelical Christian. Take a look at unions. This is also a big voting bloc. They are going for Barack Obama, 58 percent to 41. People living in union households make up 29 percent of voters in the Buckeye state.” (FOX News)

CNN appeared tread carefully when calling states for either candidate.  The network used a touch screen to take closer looks at what was happening in key states.

“Let’s go right to the voter analysis board. A couple of interesting categories which really explain it all, so if you pull up New Hampshire here on our board.

It should be blue.

Okay, so for highly educated voters, that’s always been a good category for Barack Obama.

That’s right. Voters with a post-graduate degree, the top of the education category, this is one of the top groups that delivered for Barack Obama. 70 percent for Barack Obama.” (CNN)

MSNBC called the state of Pennsylvania for Obama twenty minutes ahead of the other networks. 

For their election coverage, MSNBC created an entirely virtual newsroom to show graphics and poll numbers for the unfolding election.

“So we asked voters about the tone of the campaign and whether it was too negative. 69 percent said that John McCain attacked Barack Obama unfairly while 46 percent said that Obama attacked McCain unfairly. So Obama’s ground game in a sense that McCain may have attacked too harshly are helping Barack Obama tonight, but John McCain’s big advantage among white voters in Virginia is keeping the traditionally red state of Virginia competitive at this hour.” (MSNBC)

FOX News revealed its version of this virtual technology to their viewers while doing state polling analysis.

“But with electronics they’ve made a pretty special stretch down there. This is the balance of power studio. You see all that stuff behind him? It’s not really there is it Brett?

No not really here. It’s a big green box, but it looks good doesn’t it?” (FOX News)

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer demonstrated a revolutionary technology while talking with a reporter broadcasting from Chicago.

“Big round of applause, we did it, there she is. Jessica Yellin, I know you’re in Chicago but we’ve done something hologram, we beamed you in. We beamed you here into the CNN Election Center. I want to talk to you as I would normally be talking to you if you were really face to face with me. I know you’re at least 1,000 miles away but it looks like you’re right here. Tell us what’s going on in Chicago right now.” (CNN)

So what do you think—too much technology, or not enough?

Let us know what you thought about the coverage of the election. And visit the links to all of our sources.