Those faulty exit polls were sabotage

[sugarman]

From Dick Morris....

Republican spin as to why there is a discrepency between



http://www.thehill.com/morris/110404.aspx

Those faulty exit polls were sabotage

By now it is well-known and a part of the 2004 election lore how the exit polls by the major television networks were wrong.

Likely this faux pas will assume its place among wartime stories alongside the mistaken calls on Florida’s vote for one side and then for the other in the 2000 election. But the inaccuracies of the media’s polling deserve more scrutiny and investigation.

Exit polls are almost never wrong. They eliminate the two major potential fallacies in survey research by correctly separating actual voters from those who pretend they will cast ballots but never do and by substituting actual observation for guesswork in judging the relative turnout of different parts of the state.

So reliable are the surveys that actually tap voters as they leave the polling places that they are used as guides to the relative honesty of elections in Third World countries. When I worked on Vicente Fox’s campaign in Mexico, for example, I was so fearful that the governing PRI would steal the election that I had the campaign commission two U.S. firms to conduct exit polls to be released immediately after the polls closed to foreclose the possibility of finagling with the returns. When the polls announced a seven-point Fox victory, mobs thronged the streets in a joyous celebration within minutes that made fraud in the actual counting impossible.

But this Tuesday, the networks did get the exit polls wrong. Not just some of them. They got all of the Bush states wrong. So, according to ABC-TV’s exit polls, for example, Kerry was slated to carry Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Iowa, all of which Bush carried. The only swing state the network had going to Bush was West Virginia, which the president won by 10 points.

To screw up one exit poll is unheard of. To miss six of them is incredible. It boggles the imagination how pollsters could be that incompetent and invites speculation that more than honest error was at play here.

The mistaken exit polls infiltrated all three networks and the cable news outlets and had a chilling effect on the coverage of election night.

While all anchors refrained from announcing the exit-poll results, it was clear from the context of their comments that they expected Kerry to win and wondered if Bush could hold any key state.

[wurzel]

1. It was exit polls that alerted us in 2000.

Of course they are not wrong. But why did Kerry concede?

[sandnsea]

2. Now I am suspicious

Because see, all election day *I* was worried that the leaking of the poll numbers would cause Democrats to think they'd won and not vote. So all those states that were called for Kerry really don't make any sense and I've got Dick Morris' word on that. Hmmmm...

[sugarman]

6. Repubs will use this...

...to intidimidate the media....

even though they were the ones who stole the election in the first place...

[Gloria]

14. See Post 8.....re: intimidation ....Jeff Greenfield.

eom

[gumby]

3. Dick Morris can go suck a toe.

He's such a low-down sleaze, the Repukes are welcome to him.
Disgustipating.

[daleo]

4. They weren't mistaken, they were correct!

Kerry's early concession was stupid. It took the focus off the vote fraud. Keep this up, yet the heavens may fall!

[Fovea]

5. Once again the exit polls were 'faulty'

because they must be in order for Bush* to win, right?
Can't be anything else.

Certainly it can't be a radical takeover of the US government.

[whirlygigspin]

7. I'll buy that for a dollar!

ah yes, let us believe that thousands of bloggers all conspired together to give misleading exit polls in order to influence voters in a vast conspiracy or perhaps all the voters lied to the exit pollers in order to confuse and stupify everyone or that people actually told the exit pollers the truth...

who you gonna beleive?
-the voter coming out of the booth or the BBV machine?

don't beleive your lying eyes, watch fox and pray to the BBV.

[Gloria]

8. This is the line that Jeff Greenfield was talking about on Election day

He was saying that the Repugs were complaining that the talk about the exit polls were 'Pro-Kerry' (even though his name was not mentioned in the discussion) and that they were "worried" that the implication that Kerry was leading would UPSET (actual word used) Repugs because they would think Bush wouldn't win.

He then said that there would be "HELL TO PAY" from after the election the Republicans about how the exit polls were reported.

I remember quite clearly how I got the most horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach....

[Cerridwen]

9. Or is it that the exit polls were correct and the returns were

"finagled" with?

[Kolesar]

10. why post this twice in 30 minutes in LBN?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x959459

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. All I know is.....

I've been watching election coverage since, well, probably Johnson v. Goldwater in 1964, and the only times I can remember the exit polling being wrong ( there MAY have been one or two exceptions but EXTREMELY rare) were when one of the candidates was George W. Bush.

Paul

[SheLiberal]

15. Why did * look so bad that morning?

When I saw his face Tuesday morning I knew we had the election in the bag. He looked like he had been crying and Mrs Stepford looked awful too. Was that all staged or did they realize at that point that the only way to win was to rig the vote. I just want to know what the hell happened

[bullimiami]

12. dick morris is a slime sucking lying pig with no morals.

i emailed him this earlier today.


mr morris

in your book you well identified the accuracy and purpose of exit polling.
this election is the poster child for vote counting fraud. the evidence is mounting by the minute.
i guess we will find out what principals and this country mean to you.
there comes a time when even the most loyal soldier might look up and say "this is wrong".

If you make even a cursory investigation into the numbers it will be obvious. this wasnt even a well covered attempt.


all my best


------------



Why then did the exit polls match perfectly with the results of the secure voting areas?
It is obvious when you look. He is indicted by his own book. Asshole.

[laruemtt]

13. mr. dick morris is not thinking straight.

he might be able to get away with this doublespeak with the repukes, but his lack of logic is too apparent. why in the name of the world would we jack up the exit poll numbers, when we knew we'd eventually not be able to keep up the masquerade after the election? makes absolutely no sense. of course, lack of logic never stopped the dark side before.

[Deere_John]

16. I guess I'm just a simpleton, but.....

Wouldn't poll numbers indicating a very strong performance by one candidate tend to depress turnout by both parties?

[Moderator]

17. not LBN

locking.