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1 to 2. With majestic mien the New York Times proclaimed Kennedy's election. An answering echo came from California where Kennedy was maintaining a steady 50,000 lead: the pro-Nixon San Francisco Examiner announced that Kennedy had carried the state and the nation. Even so, the result still was not official, and Nixon was conceding nothing. Ohio's Democratic Governor Mike Di Salle, who went hook, line and sinker for Kennedy, still could not believe that Kennedy (and perhaps Di Salle) was sunk in Ohio. Kennedy rallied to take the lead in the fight for Minnesota's 11 electoral votes—enough to put him over the top according to most calculations, come what might in California. But then Kennedy's margin began to fade in Illinois as downstate votes came in. Nixon refused to quit.
2 to 3. New York's Senator Kenneth Keating became the first big Republican to concede to Kennedy, wired him congratulations. In Moscow the Soviet radio announced a Kennedy victory.
But doubt still gnawed at top Democrats in Washington. "Scoop" Jackson said the race was narrowing. The Midwest held the balance of power, and the balance was seesawing. Wisconsin fell to Nixon, as the Democrats' disappointingly small turnout in Milwaukee failed to overcome the outstate G.O.P. avalanche. Kennedy's Illinois lead dwindled further. Minnesota turned into a no man's state. Kennedy was still in front by 14% in Michigan, but Democrats declined to proclaim victory until the final third of the vote was counted.
With Kennedy only half a dozen votes away from victory, the small states of the nation took on great importance. Kennedy won Montana's four electoral votes. He pulled ahead slightly in Hawaii. Down South, the Democratic rebels who had cast their votes for independent electors conjured up visions of becoming kingmakers. Among them, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia had 31 electors—only five for Kennedy, and 26 "unpledged." The predawn dream: perhaps neither candidate would get a majority, and the Deep South could throw the election into the House of Representatives, where each state would have one vote, and the South could swing to the candidate who offered the softest deal on civil rights.
3 to 4. When Nevada finally went Democratic, Kennedy was within a handful of the necessary 269 electoral votes—but that handful was turning out to be a tough one to grab. What was more, predictions of a Kennedy victory assumed that he would win Illinois. But in Illinois, farmers were slicing down the fat lead that he had piled up in Chicago. In pivotal Minnesota, Kennedy's lead was down to a bare 30,000. With these developments obviously in mind, Vice President Nixon refused to make a flat concession when he went off to bed. Kennedy announced through Press Aide Pierre Salinger that he, too, was off to bed. That left a bleary-eyed nation sipping coffee by its television sets and noting, as the hour drew to a close, that Kennedy's popular vote lead was down to 1,000,000.