All presidential elections are extraordinary in their fashion, as have been TIME'S efforts to cover them over the past 60 years. But no special election edition of the magazine has approached the dimensions of this week's issue. It contains 45 pages of election stories, almost twice as many as any such issue in the past. It offers an unprecedented 59 pages of color. It is one of the largest issues TIME has ever published, and it is a record advertising issue.

As has become traditional for our presidential election coverage, TIME went to press four days earlier than usual, and will keep its special issue on the newsstand for eleven days. Its crash-close deadlines called for the presses to start only 15 hours after the last polls closed.

All across the country, TIME'S bureau chiefs deployed their forces to cover not only the contest for President but also the significant congressional and state races. Correspondents in all of the key cities and state capitals conducted exit polls and monitored the mood of the voters as they cast their ballots. From those hour-by-hour reports, supplemented by insights from expert political observers and party leaders, the bureau chiefs described how Americans in their part of the country voted--and why they voted overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan.

TIME correspondents accompanied each of the four major candidates as they gave their last speeches and shook their last few hundred hands. Two White House correspondents covered Ronald Reagan's final forays: Douglas Brew traveled with the President on a five-day, 16-city swing, and Laurence Barrett was there for the huge G.O.P. wrap-up rally in San Diego.

Time Inc. Editor in Chief Henry Grunwald, TIME Managing Editor Ray Cave and Barrett met with Reagan last week in the Oval Office for an exclusive interview, and Barrett and Brew interviewed the President again on Election Day, when he knew his victory was assured (see page 52). On the road with Mondale were Correspondents Sam Allis and Jack White. Said Allis of the frantic finish: "Mondale's pace since the debates has been brutal. We arrive and leave our hotels in the dark, stops are added to the schedule at the last minute. Sometimes I feel as if I have been on Guadalcanal for a year."

Los Angeles Correspondent Melissa Ludtke followed a confident Vice President George Bush on his eight-day trip through eleven states. Washington Correspondent David Beckwith observed the last stops of Geraldine Ferraro's precedent-setting campaign. "Her traveling entourage was upbeat and lighthearted to the end," he reported. "It was one of those occasions in the life of a journalist when you are very aware of watching history being made."

To write, edit and check the 19 election stories in Nation, TIME augmented the regular staff of that department with editors, writers, reporter-researchers, artists, copyreaders and other specialists from all sections of the magazine. The picture department assigned 15 photographers from coast to coast, with the latest election-night photographs from the West Coast being beamed by satellite to New York City for editing and transmission to printing plants.

One very special writing assignment was that undertaken by Theodore H. White, noted author of The Making of the President series. His role: a major story for TIME examining the new forces at play in the American political arena.

On Election Day, staff members joined their fellow citizens at the polls, then reported to their posts for what, in many cases, proved to be a 30-hour stretch. By the time the day and night were over, the election was history, and the most colorful and comprehensive election issue ever was on its way to TIME'S readers.