On election day doesn't the media start saying who wins around 5PM?

[Fed Up]

I remember on election day in 2002, near 5PM a radio announcer saying "Based on exit polling the Democrats will not win back the House of Representatives." This was hours before the polls closed.

I know the TV networks won't be calling individual states before their polls close, but what about radio and internet? Will we get any kind of a "sneak preview"? Will any blogger know early that day?

Personally I think I'd rather have the result in one shot, before I sit down for supper, unless it's a big Kerry landslide. If it's not going to go my way and turn out to be a drip by drip "Ohio goes for Bush, Pennsylvania goes for Bush," I'm not interested in sitting in front of the tube for 6 hours.

(Also, I remember in 1996 hearing that Bob Dole was told before the polls opened that, "Sorry, Clinton is going to win.")

I hope Ray Taliaferro is right when he calls this "Operation overwhelm" and a Kerry landslide is in the works.

[Still_Loves_John]

1. I don't think that they do that anymore

after Florida got called with the polls still open in the panhandle. I remember that during the primaries, even though they did exit polling, they didn't release it until after the polls had closed. They counted down to the closing, and as soon as it happened up popped the projected winner.

[LTR]

2. Not supposed to until final polling places close

This was part of an agreement a few years back, since the West Coast doesn't close voting places until later than the rest of the country.