Using Excel to Track the Vote 2016

Yesterday evening I followed the vote closely and carefully, using an Excel spreadsheet.  I put all the states in a column on the left, then to the right, their electoral votes.  The next two columns to the right were labeled Hillary and Trump.  When a state was called, I would put the electoral vote won in the winner's column.  Here is a portion of that spreadsheet to illustrate:

The black numbers are actual votes, the red numbers were my prediction, based on trends.  In this way I could see the direction of the vote.  Early on, I saw the direction was in Trump's favor, and that his winning it was indeed possible.  Being able to see this in black and white eased my mind considerably, and watching the vote became a lot less fearful and painful.

As the night wore on, all Trump needed was to win Michigan to put him over the top.  However, Pennsylvania closed first, and that put him over.

All the while, I kept up a running conversation with other Trump supporters on FaceBook, as well as checking the electoral maps on both the New York Times and Fox News websites.

The result of this was that I enjoyed the vote, instead of anguishing over it.  It enabled me to see, hours before the end, that Trump was headed for a win.