Crypto News: The election night party conundrum

When the first polls close at 7 tonight on the East Coast, political junkies will settle in for their Super Bowl. But like football's big game, election night poses many options: head out to a bar, join a party or watch alone from home. Today Reyhan Harmanci and Emma Sanchez break down the options. Plus: How the vote may play out on social media, and which business schools are succeeding in recruiting more women. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

What are you doing for election night?

At this moment, it's hard to imagine a more fraught phrase. Worse than "got a minute to talk?" or even "I'm curious about something." It's especially potent for Democrats who lived through the now-infamous scenes from 2016, when crying women at Hillary Clinton's party at the Javits Center in New York City became avatars of the surprise Donald Trump victory. On the flip side, the view from the Hilton near Trump Tower was equally iconic, where the night went from moribund to ecstatic, filled with young men in MAGA hats at the bar.

In 2020, thanks to the pandemic, in-person events were mostly off the table, postponing the reboot of 2016 trauma/joy. Eventbrite, the party planning platform, affirms that there are 78% more parties tonight than in 2020 by its count. (Officials at the Javits Center, however, when asked if they would ever host another election night party, declined to comment.) So, what are people planning this year?

In 2016, the MAGA-hatted were celebrating. Photographer: Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe/Getty Images

The presidential candidates' plans reflect their optimism (or not) on how quickly the race will be called. From the New York Times:

The Trump team has invited its top donors and fund-raisers to Florida. Some donors are invited to a V.I.P. reception at Mar-a-Lago with the Trump family, while a larger group is invited to the Palm Beach Convention Center for the actual results. Guests are encouraged to wear "MAGA cocktail attire," according to materials distributed to fund-raisers.

And Vice President Kamala Harris? She'll be hosting an event at Howard University in Washington. But the message isn't "Let's party."

In a sign that the Harris campaign expects the results to be drawn out over the course of the week, her top donors have been told that there won't solely be a Tuesday night party—but also a Wednesday briefing for Harris Victory Fund members. "We'll plan to gather again midday on Wednesday for an update on Tuesday's election results," the Harris campaign told its top donors, according to materials distributed to her top bundlers.

In other words, Tuesday night won't necessarily be decisive, replete with victory and concession speeches and all the visuals that accompany them. Local branches of both Democratic and Republican parties are moving forward with events. In New York City, the Young Republican Club is having a viewing party somewhere in the East Village. On the Democratic side, the youngest city council member, Chi Ossé, is hosting a benefit election party in Brooklyn. (He did tell New York magazine, for its cover story on election anxiety, "I'm stressed as f---.")

The brave ones persevere. "Absolutely no trepidation," says Tim Burke, president of NYC New Liberals. He says more than 200 people have RSVP'd for the group's election night watch party in Manhattan. "We're feeling very good about the results," he says, noting that they'll be watching for the outcomes of a bunch of congressional races as well as the presidential election. The Woman's National Democratic Club was similarly enthusiastic: About 125 people (including a group of European tourists!) have signed up to attend its event in Washington, with a buffet dinner that will feature jerk chicken and hot dish, in honor of the Democratic ticket's roots. "We are optimistic about the outcome of the election," the group's president, Rosalyn Coates, said in an email.

Perhaps the most difficult needle to thread is a nonpartisan election party—which is exactly what Rebecca Lynn, creator of Vinyl Nights/Dancing for Democracy is attempting with her Brooklyn gathering. "My party's very unique, because I will have three TV screens set up on CNN and MSNBC and Fox News," she says, "It will be on closed caption because we will have DJs playing music."

Although it's hard for many to imagine spending time with people on the other side of this closely contested race, Lynn's rationale for throwing her party is relatable: "Whatever happens, I didn't want to be alone." But—speaking as someone who had an election night party in 2016 that featured many crying guests—being alone might be just the thing.

Certainly, it's what Rusty Foster, creator of the Today in Tabs (and Today in Trails) newsletter, is looking forward to. "I'll be sleeping on the ground, as usual," Foster said in a message, from his monthslong Appalachian Trail journey, noting that he won't know the results until Wednesday morning, at the earliest. "I think it's just another walking all day and then camping somewhere." There are definitely worse ways to spend the night.

Related, from the Prognosis newsletter: Your Election Anxiety May Not End After Tuesday

From Bloomberg Pursuits: What 15 Experts Are Drinking on Election Night, Win or Lose

Bonus reading while watching the count: How US Voting Machines Became Safer Than Ever

Here's why swing states hold so much sway over the US election.
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Illustration: Michelle Cohn for Bloomberg Businessweek

Heading into the US presidential election four years ago, Facebook and Twitter instituted substantial policies to combat misleading political content, touted their investments into content moderation and promised to do all they could to avoid a free-for-all on their platforms. Just before Election Day in 2020, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told investors the election would be a test of the company's yearslong effort to protect the political process. "Election integrity is and will be an ongoing challenge," he said. "And I'm proud of the work we've done here."

When then-President Donald Trump used his social media accounts to sow discord and his supporters did resort to violence on Jan. 6, 2021, both companies banned him. Since then, however, each has reinstated Trump's accounts. They've also moved away from the approach they took in 2020, albeit each in their own ways. Zuckerberg has tried to reduce the prominence of political content on services owned by Meta Platforms Inc., while Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has mostly rejected content moderation and has gone all-in for Trump.

Across the social media industry, companies have reduced staffing on content moderation, often leaning more on artificial-intelligence-powered technology that may have trouble picking up nuance. The only major social media platform taking a more aggressive approach this election cycle may be TikTok, a service that had been active in the US for barely two years during the 2020 election.

Academics say all the elements are in place for dangerous abuse of the platforms. They're concerned about posts that seek to confuse people about the voting process, attempts to declare victory early and campaigns using disinformation to sow doubts about the integrity of the outcome. The platforms don't allow such behavior, but the specific ways they enforce their rules could make a huge difference.

Alexandra S Levine, Sarah Frier and Ryan Gallagher write about how Meta and X are handling posts today: Expect This Election to Play Differently than 2020 on Social Media

Photo Illustration: Oscar Bolton Green; Photo: Getty Images/Kobus Louw

When it comes to women making gains in MBA programs, the long-term trends are encouraging, even as progress can seem painfully slow.

According to a report from the Forté Foundation, the number of entering female students this fall at 61 MBA programs in the US and abroad reached a high of 6,166. Since 2020, enrollment of female students has increased 13%, outpacing the 3% growth rate for men and women combined. The schools all are members of Forté, an advocacy organization that works to help more women earn an MBA. The nonprofit has published annual data on women's enrollment since 2011. That year, there were roughly 4,000 women enrolled in full-time MBA programs at 39 schools.

Women made up 42% of all students enrolled in an MBA program this fall, the same percentage as in 2023. "We were like, 'Are we stuck?'" says Forté Chief Executive Officer Elissa Sangster. "But we've had so many years of growth, it's natural to have some static years. And in the last year, the numbers of total enrollment for both men and women increased. I always say that in a classroom, whether it's 45% or 50% women, you can't really tell the difference."

The goal of having women make up at least half of students has eluded most graduate business schools, but there is progress on that front, too.

To see which schools have achieved parity, read on, from Paul Keegan, here: At Business Schools, More Women Are Getting MBAs

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