Election Night
Election Night
[Megan and Cueball face each other while talking on the left of the panel] Megan: Ugh, I'm just going to hide out for election night. We'll know the results the next day anyway. The drama is so unnecessary. Cueball: Yeah. The internet and the 24-hour news have turned elections into a continuous, inescapable media onslaught. [A man in a top hat appears on the right side of the panel with a "Poof"]
[Panel with just the man in a top hat, holding a newspaper] Man in a top hat: Hi! I'm a time traveler from 1896. Let me tell you about our election night coverage. Man in a top hat: *Ahem* Man in a top hat: From the Chicago Tribune
[Zoom in on the head of the man in a top hat] Man in a top hat: "Once every hour from the roof of the Great Northern Hotel a series of bombs, which will ascend for several thousand feet, will be fired. Two colors will be used, blue and red." Man in a top hat: "Blue to indicate McKinley's election, red to indicate Bryan's election." Man in a top hat: "The bombardment of the skies will commence at 7 o'clock and will be repeated hourly." [Grey citation]: Chicago Tribune, Oct 30th & Nov 1st, 1896
[Megan and Cueball on the left looking at the man in the top hat on the right] Megan: Yeah, well, we have a needle, though. Man in a top hat: A needle. Megan: It jiggles! Man in a top hat: Sounds awful. Cueball: Listen, you had to be there.

This is the third comic in a row that deals with elections in the United States; the trio has been published in the week before the US midterm elections held on November 6, 2018 and it compares media coverage on election results in 1896 and 2018. During this time the Header text of xkcd was also changed three times, including on the release days of both this and the previous comic, to help people go and vote. See more in the trivia section .
While elections and voting have been a public staple for generations, election coverage by the media can result in voter fatigue .  While voter fatigue is considered a major criticism of things like first past the post voting systems, media outlets will also contribute.
The time traveler from 1896, wearing a top hat (the typical hat used at that time), presents Megan and Cueball a method how the latest news --over the night-- is published to the public. No broadcasting television or even radio existed then and most newspapers, reaching the readers on the next morning, were printed in the evening before the election results were certain.  For the election referenced in this clipping , Republican candidate William McKinley (assigned the color Blue) won in a close race against Democrat-Populist candidate William J. Bryan (assigned the color Red).
Here, Randall is taking a unique opportunity to point out that unlike our recollection of history (which is usually modified by the misinformation effect , where we perceive the past as being easier and find a source to blame for the election night jitters) that in fact, in the past, a bombardment of fireworks every hour was used to convey the hour-by-hour play of the election night, a significantly more jarring effect that couldn't even be turned off.  We have progressed, in some ways, to a more opt-in system, rather than the opt-out system of the past, where you had to leave Chicago to avoid the news.
The part about the "jiggling needle" may be a reference to the New York Times' 2016 presidential election results webpage, which displayed a "needle" it used to forecast the results of the presidential election between then-candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  The position of the needle was initially set based on pre-election polls, pointing heavily toward Hillary Clinton, but as election results from around the country -- and from individual counties within states -- started coming in it changed to reflect those results.  Especially near the beginning, before a lot of real election data had come in, results reported from small counties could dramatically swing the needle to one side or the other when coming from heavily Democratic or Republican districts, then swing again when another county reported.  Only when a significant amount of data had come in did the needle settle down and move more incrementally.
The title text explains that in 1896 even blind people were taken care of, as enormous megaphones were installed to convey the news equally unavoidably to those who couldn't (or didn't want to) see the color bombs. This is in fact true but was intended for those in the colosseum, not all of Chicago.
[Megan and Cueball face each other while talking on the left of the panel] Megan: Ugh, I'm just going to hide out for election night. We'll know the results the next day anyway. The drama is so unnecessary. Cueball: Yeah. The internet and the 24-hour news have turned elections into a continuous, inescapable media onslaught. [A man in a top hat appears on the right side of the panel with a "Poof"]
[Panel with just the man in a top hat, holding a newspaper] Man in a top hat: Hi! I'm a time traveler from 1896. Let me tell you about our election night coverage. Man in a top hat: *Ahem* Man in a top hat: From the Chicago Tribune
[Zoom in on the head of the man in a top hat] Man in a top hat: "Once every hour from the roof of the Great Northern Hotel a series of bombs, which will ascend for several thousand feet, will be fired. Two colors will be used, blue and red." Man in a top hat: "Blue to indicate McKinley's election, red to indicate Bryan's election." Man in a top hat: "The bombardment of the skies will commence at 7 o'clock and will be repeated hourly." [Grey citation]: Chicago Tribune, Oct 30th & Nov 1st, 1896
[Megan and Cueball on the left looking at the man in the top hat on the right] Megan: Yeah, well, we have a needle, though. Man in a top hat: A needle. Megan: It jiggles! Man in a top hat: Sounds awful. Cueball: Listen, you had to be there.
