There’s only so much order you can impose on the chaos created by a magnitude 10.0 newsquake but between the four of us we’re going to try. Here’s a quick and dirty guide to our plan so that you know what to expect tonight. The easiest way to do this, we think, is to split up the labor according to poll closing times for key battleground states across the U.S. The breakdown:

7 p.m. ET to 8 p.m.: Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina
8 p.m. ET to 9 p.m.: Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire
9 p.m. ET to 10 p.m.: Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota
10 p.m. ET to 11 p.m.: Iowa, Nevada

We’ll have four separate threads, one for each of these groups, on the front page. I’ll take the 7 p.m. group, Erika will cover the 8 p.m. crowd, MKH will handle the 9 p.m. slot, and Ed will join in at 10 p.m. Each of us will be updating our respective threads on those states throughout the night. Any other commentary we have about the election generally or about a state we’re not assigned to cover will be posted in the Greenroom, so it’ll be worth it to open up the master page in a separate tab and check in periodically. Should be lots of material in there. On top of all that, Ed will be co-hosting the Hugh Hewitt show tonight beginning at 6 p.m. ET; you can watch it here beginning at 6pm Eastern.

Prepare for a clusterfark, in other words, but hopefully a happy one. (One way to prepare: Make sure you know the basics of the electoral math.) To tide you over until showtime, here’s a rewarding Onion bit about the stupid predictability and predictable stupidity of social media today. (How bad is it out there? Dude.) It’s funny but profane, so please observe your official content warning.

Update (Ed): We’ve already begun our coverage on the Hugh Hewitt Show — so be sure to watch us live!