If I recall correctly, calling the states was based on media "exit
polls", not on actual election results. If someone asked me something
like that as I exited, I'd give them the wrong answer ON PURPOSE and
giggle to myself as I did. Who I vote for is my business, not theirs.
The actual results ought to be reported, not exit poll results.

Cynthia Bridges-Fowler
MIS Operations Analyst
IMC Salt, Inc., a division of IMC Global
[log in to unmask]
http://www.imcsalt.com

>>> Glenn Koster <[log in to unmask]> 11/28/00 02:55PM >>>
Michael,

It also includes Kansas - which had no real exciting races except the
presidential race.  There were 2 house districts up for grabs - but
they
have been "Republican" for so long the Democrats decided not to enter
the
races.  There were no statewide races.  Every state senate seat and
every
state House seat were up for grabs... but only 10% of those were
"contested"
races.  They called Kansas for Bush before the polls even closed in my
area - over an hour before the 8 western most counties closed the
polls.  A
similar situation occurred in Florida, I believe.  I think the first
indications that Florida was "leaning Gore" came around 7:20 (40
minutes
before the western polling places closed) - and they were based on 0%
of the
precints reporting.  Come on... even you have to agree - that isn't
reporting, it's "making the news up".

Interestingly enough, the voter turn out in those western Kansas
counties
was approximately 35% of the registered voters.  In the rest of the
state we
beat the national average by a long shot... averaging 68% of the
registered
population voting.  Granted, it would not have made a tremendous
difference
in the overall popular vote, but it would have made some... and likely
in
favor of Bush too (since Kansas has gone Republican by a wide margin
every
year since Kennedy)!  Conservative estimates would guess that Bush
lost
about 2,000 votes in the popular vote tally because of the timezone
factor
in sparsely populated western Kansas...   Now multiply that my the tens
of
thousands when you consider the effects of even a 10% decrease in
voter
turnout in an area like Tallahassee.

As for getting the votes counted, I am all for ensuring that ALL VOTES
must
be IN the county clerk's office by the close of business on election
day
(not 10 days later).  This would ensure that a speedy count could be
completed.  It would also eliminate any issue of "postmarks".

I don't really favor nationwide simutaneous polling hours because of
the
reasons that you mention, but it would eliminate much of the biased
reporting that occurs based simply on "exit polling" and would
eliminate the
"west coast" factor.

Glenn