Everything you wanted to know about 2006 exit polling

[TexasLawyer]

and then some. The Pew interview (last link) is required reading for election junkies!

Will Exit Polls Win On Election Night?

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.

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

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http://www.edisonresearch.com/aboutus/joe_lenski.php
Joe Lenski
Executive Vice President

Joe Lenski is co-founder and Executive Vice President of Edison Media Research. Since founding Edison Media Research in 1994, he has overseen the consistent and rapid growth of the company. With Edison Media Research, Lenski oversees hundreds of research projects each year for some of the world’s largest media companies, conducting survey research and providing strategic information to radio stations, television stations, newspapers, cable networks, record labels, Internet companies and other media organizations.

Lenski is an expert in the operation and organization of survey research and has been involved in every major exit poll conducted in the last decade for the television networks. Under his supervision, in partnership with Mitofsky International, Edison Media Research currently conducts all exit polls and election projections for the six major news organizations – ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC and the Associated Press.

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The process is described here in detail.

Pew Research Center Interview With Joe Lenski On Exit Polls


Andrew Kohut, President of Pew Research Center, interviews Joe Lenski on exit polls and the upcomming election. From pewresearch.org, September 28, 2006

http://www.edisonresearch.com/home/archives/PewResearch092806.pdf

[TexasLawyer]

1. News groups take measures to quarantine exit-polling results

One more story:

Sunday, November 5, 2006

News groups take measures to quarantine exit-polling results
By Matea Gold

Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK — Haunted by the bungled calls and leaked information that plagued the coverage of the past three nationwide elections, a group of news organizations is taking no chances Tuesday.

This time around, the members of the National Election Pool — a consortium of five broadcast and cable networks and The Associated Press that commissions exit polls of the major races — have decided to sequester two analysts from each news organization in a secret "quarantine room" in New York, where they alone will get access to the first waves of data from precincts around the country.

Stripped of their cellphones and BlackBerrys — and even monitored when they use the bathrooms — the representatives will be able to study the results of the surveys but will not be allowed to communicate them to their newsrooms until 5 p.m. EST, although results won't be broadcast until later. Projections will be made for each race in a state, one at a time, after all the polls in a state are closed.

<snip>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003348274_exit05.html

[TexasLawyer]

2. page 3 so fast??!

Shoot, I KNEW I should have put the words "man on man sex" in the thread title!

[scarletwoman]

3. Well, here's a k&r -- and a thank you for posting this. (nt)

[JeffR]

4. K & R

Thanks!