The U.S. Presidential Election is still too close to call, but I’m still cautiously optimistic that Kerry’s going to win.

So far, there have been no surprises, because most of the key “battleground states” are still too close to call. But voter turnout is huge, which is good for Kerry.

I’ve been watching (terrestrial broadcast) TV a little, but the quality of the coverage is even worse than the reception. Dan Rather, the veteran election anchor on CBS, is even less articulate than Bush! The BBC map on the web is the best presentation I’ve found so far.

However, looking at the map geographically can be quite depressing, because the whole middle of the U.S. is GOP (Republican) coloured… Fortunately most of these landlocked states voting for Bush are sparsely populated, and have very few Electoral College votes — like 3 or 5, compared to California’s 55 or New York’s 31. The New York Times has provided a more encouraging histogram map (click “View Map According to Electoral Votes”).

One thing is obvious — the result isn’t going to be clear until very late.