TV networks vie for viewer's votes: Sophisticated computer graphics will be the weapons as television technologists compete to speedily convert 1984 election results into exciting home images

It is 8 p.m. on the east coast of the United States on Nov. 6,1984. The polls have dosed in several states including New Hampshire and Alabama. Correspondents from the three major U.S. television networks stationed at sample precincts in these states are rushing to telephones to report election results to operators at the networks' central computers. The operators key in the results. Each network has 3000 to 4000 sample precincts across the country.