New York Times brings back notorious needle for Va. gov race

The New York Times is bringing back its election forecast needle dial for Tuesday’s Virginia governor election.

The needle gained notoriety among Democrats during last year’s presidential race, when those watching tracked the needle as it moved from a solid forecast for Hillary Clinton to a victory for President Trump.

The Times’s Nate Cohn, who writes for The Upshot, tweeted that the latest dial would go live at 7 p.m.

Virginia, 7pm eastern pic.twitter.com/wuE2VH5HpN

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 7, 2017

Many associate the dial with showing Hillary Clinton with a roughly 70 percent chance of victory on election night. The needle then ticked steadily in Trump’s favor as returns came in throughout the night.

{mosads}Replies to Cohn’s original tweet included people asking him to “bury” the dial, telling him to “make it stop” and recalling the image giving them nightmares in 2016. 

On Tuesday night, the dial will only forecast the margin of the race, not the probability of the outcome, Cohn said. It will also start by showing the race as a tie rather than with Democratic nominee Ralph Northam up 3 points, as most polls suggest.