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Election night is a long night. The polls close, the maps light up, and then a room full of people sits and watches an anchor tap a touchscreen for four hours. Somebody has to keep the party alive. That somebody is you.
We've been hosting rooms full of strangers since 1999, and the trick is always the same: give people something to do together besides stare at their phones. So we built two free games for the US midterms on Tuesday, 3 November. Both are one tap. Both work whoever you're rooting for.
Game 1: Election Night BingoThe squares on this card are things that happen on every results broadcast, on every channel, in every election. No candidates. No parties. Nothing that depends on who wins. If the anchor says "too early to call," everybody at the party gets to mark it, no matter which way they voted.
Open the Election Night Bingo card. It opens the Bingo Card Generator with every square already filled in. Pick how many cards you need, print, done.
One honest note: free downloads from the generator carry a small "FREE DEMO" watermark on each card. It plays fine. If you'd rather hand out clean cards (or you want your own colours and a bigger stack), a Day Pass removes the watermark for 24 hours.
Here are the 24 squares, plus the free space in the middle:
Want a local square? Swap one in: "Someone says 'I'm going to bed' and doesn't" plays well.
Game 2: Election Trivia, One Round, Ten QuestionsThe broadcast has dead air. Lots of it. Fill it with a round of trivia about how US elections actually work: the structure, the history, the odd little rules nobody remembers from school. How long is one House term? How old do you have to be to serve in the House? Facts, not forecasts. No polling, no predictions, no hot takes.
Load the Election Night trivia round. It opens in our free Trivia Show Maker as round one of a fresh show, with answers and a printable host sheet. If you already have a show in progress, it asks before touching it.
That leaves four empty rounds. Fill them with your own questions or the sample packs and you've got a full trivia night for the next time the group gets together.
How to Run It at a Watch PartyYou don't need a stage or a microphone. You need a few things on the coffee table and a host who keeps it light.
One card per person. Not per couple, not per household. Everybody plays. Print a few extras for the friend who shows up at 9:30 with a plus-one.
Something to mark with. Pens work. Candy corn left over from Halloween works better, and it's the right week for it.
Snacks within reach. Election coverage runs late. Put out the stuff that survives sitting there for three hours: popcorn, pretzels, a bowl of whatever. Save the hot food for when the first big call comes in.
Small prizes. A line wins a snack pick. A blackout wins the remote. Bragging rights are free and somehow worth the most.
Play trivia in the slow stretch. There's always a long gap between the first poll closings and anything interesting. That's your trivia window. Ten questions takes about twenty minutes.
Keep it about the broadcast, not the result. This is the one rule. The game is about the anchor's laptop and the confetti on standby, not who's ahead. If a debate starts brewing, call the next square. "Okay, who has 'Path to 218'?" works better than any referee whistle. Everybody in the room is on the same team, and the team is the snack table.
And if anyone at your party still needs to vote, send them to vote.gov before the bingo starts.
Your Next Party Is the Office Christmas PartyHere's the thing about election night: the week after it, everyone's calendar turns into December. The office party, the family gathering, the friends who do a holiday night every year. If your watch party went well, you're about to get asked to run another one.
We've got you there too. Our Christmas trivia and music bingo page has everything for the holiday season in one place.
For the bigger picture on running a great night, read the trivia night guide, and for everything the card maker can do, the bingo card generator guide.
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