FOX News is reporting that, "in order to avoid the Bush-Gore debacle of 2000," exit polls will be "quarantined" by the National Election Pool on Tuesday. That is, exit polling data will not be released by the corporate media alliance until the polls close on the West Coast. (As usual, Hawaii and Alaska get ignored.) But I have a big beef with this.
First, early release of exit polls had absolutely nothing to do with the 2000 election debacle. The data was not announced until the polls had closed in Florida, and the "debacle" was that the Republican lawyers, lawmakers, and Supreme Court justices blocked a full statewide recount of votes that would have shown under any standard that Gore was the real winner. Second, 2006 is not a Presidential contest... so why suppress exit polling data from states whose polls have already closed?
FOX says blithely that the quarantine has been constructed to suppress, "the crucial info - which could provide an early hint if a Democratic wave is in fact under way." I am not sure which party would be assisted by suppressing that information, but I am going to guess it is the Republicans, since FOX seems so pleased about it. The sad thing is that, like most Americans, what I really wish could be quarantined on election night is all the posturing, bloviating, and punditry... And now, with no data to report at all, that is all we're gonna get until 9:00 PST, 12:00 EST.
[Note: the article is somewhat unclear, actually. It is possible that the pool will only suppress exit polling data until each individual state's polls have closed--in which case I have no objection. Can anyone clarify?]
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Quarantine This
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 11:12 AM
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3 comments:
Another thing...this is less about 2000 than about 2004 when exit polls (especially in Ohio) did not match the vote tallies.
What the Republicans may be doing is preparing to steel another election.
Get ready to mobilize!
// posted by RBR
They are preparing to steal another one. I remember putting this is a post earlier and was told that this time, it wouldn't be possible since the Democrats had such a big lead. I put nothing past them. There are still some pretty close districts.
But I was listening to something the other day, perhaps it was Air America (I spent my weekend in Madison, WI, so I got a taste of Air America, which I can't get here on FM.), and they were talking about the legal preparations taking place. Poll watchers are set to start calling lawyers at the first sign of funny business. I believe this is limited to the most competitive states, like VA, Tenn, RI, Ohio, and Missouri.
RBR, to show you how important voting is becoming, even my doctor went all her patients and e-mail today encouraging them to vote.
BTW all, I am poll working again. I doubt I'll have much interesting to so that is different from the other 3 times I have posted on it. However, we do use Sequoia machines in our district. So far, I haven't had any problems with them. However, they can be easily manipulatedby a hacker, as a report out from the Brennan Center at New York University Law deminstrated. And it doesn't help that our county elections chief has resigned and is facing 43 felony charges of fraud and embezzlement. I bet I will see a lot of voters opting out of the machines this time around.
Great. Just Great.
// posted by USWest
It will be hard for them to fix the election in Ohio where the Democrats are ahead by double digits in the key races. But the senate races in VA, MT, TN, and MO are a different story. In those areas we have close races where the local authorities are often Republicans and so more likely to cooperate with the fix.
I'm increasingly thinking that today will be a good day for the Democrats but we won't get the Senate. It'll be a two run hommer not the grand slam we were hoping for (that baseball reference is just for you Bell Curve and LTG).
After work I'm going to head over to Demcoratic HQ and offer my services on the phone or driving around to pick up voters. Then as the polls close I'll be heading to the local swanky hotel for our Congresional candidate's victory party. It should be a good party!
// posted by RBR
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