Will Exit Polls Win On Election Night?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/05/politics/main2154106.shtml

Will Exit Polls Win On Election Night?
The Media Depend On Exit Polls, But High Profile Glitches Recently Have Sent Us Back To Drawing Board

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2006

(CBS) It may seem unlikely, but on Tuesday the offices above an East Coast antique store will be the epicenter of American politics.

Joe Lenski will know the election's results before almost anybody, reports CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell. His company, Edison Media Research, gathers the exit poll information used by a consortium of TV networks and the Associated Press to help quickly determine who won and why.

"We will be at 1000 polling locations and we will interview more than 100,000 people," Lenski tells Mitchell.

The process begins with surveys conducted outside polling places.

Three times a day that info is called into headquarters and eventually funneled to organizations like CBS News, where it's dissected by CBS News Director of Surveys Kathleen Frankovic.

"For example, what was the biggest issue on the voters' minds?" says Frankovic. "Were there any major demographic differences in how people voted?"

But in recent years exit polling has been at the center of controversy.

In 2000 bad polling data added to the confusion over who carried Florida. Two years later the same outfit —Voter News Service — had a crippling computer glitch.

Lenski's group took over for 2004 but young pollsters tended to interview young voters, skewing the results. By mid-day, preliminary exit poll data leaked out to the blogosphere, giving the false impression that Senator John Kerry would be

FULL story at link above.

[texpatriot2004]

1. Who's doing the exit polling? nm

[applegrove]

2. Why did they call it reluctant responder theory when now they say

it was young pollsters talking to people their own age? I still say the exit polls are being messed with. Because they were off in places with no machines amongst other reasons.