Has there been any Exit Polling
It is my understanding that the Voter News Service (VNS) has been conducting exit polls during US elections since 1968. Were any conducted in your state?
If not, why not???
MostUndemocraticNationUSA
Unregistered User
(11/7/02 1:50 am) Reply
either way election invalid
[snip by moderator]
I cannot believe all those that might be falling for this election. Everything was predetermined. Your votes didnt matter, and from here on out, they dont wither.
(expletive deleted by moderator)
Edited by: stevenstevensteven at: 11/7/02 7:11:37 am
SomeoneSomewhere
Unregistered User
(11/7/02 6:11 pm) Reply
Problems with analysis software
The VNS decided not to provide exit poll information because they had not worked out some bugs in the latest software that they are using. This all goes back to the Florida election. Due to incorrect reports from the VNS exit polls during that election, they have made some significant modifications to their software. They stated that the information was correctly collected, but analysis was not correct. Kudos to them for deciding not to give out invalid numbers. Personally, I'd prefer that no exit poll information be given out during the election. Afterwards would be ok as a rough comparison to the "official" numbers.
The code behind exit poll tabulation is astoundingly simple to write. And the more simple it is, the less error prone.
Why, with two years and millions (billions?) of dollars could they not get it right? When I took Oracle 8i, we were taught DB querying on the first day, and produced percentage based results the first week.
This story is hole-ier than a hula-hoop.
select from Florida_exit_results_table
where vote1 = true
The likely truth is that the "invalid numbers" were showing the opposite of the intended result. Better to just throw the whole notion of "asking voters who they voted for" out the window with a cheesy and unbelievable excuse, and rely on known methods such as stolen ballot boxes and outright fraudulent punch machines and the like.
THOSE methods have been working for millenia, and that is why the VNS fell back on them, as opposed to exposing the FACT the fraud starts and ends at the tippity-top.
Not so simple
Most likely, VNS' problems are with weighting. When dealing with a very small sample size (like exit-polls), you want to try and make sure that your results are representative. The weighting to do that is a complex process, and they may not be happy that it was done right.
Voter Machine Fraud November 5th
We need to start a grassroots movement to outlaw touchscreen voter machines. I get frustrated with these things just when I use me ATM card. The moral of this election is that if computers tabulate your vote based on some mysterious button you press then it is programmers that determine elections. The old argument that paper ballots provide for recounts makes as much sense today as it did 100 years ago. The crime of election 2000 was that the votes needed to actually determine the will of the people were there but the recount not allowed. As usual the problem has been solved by the problem itself and now there are no ballots to recount and despute this unbeleavable election. Reputlicans couldn't have planned it better and don't think for a secound that this wasn't well planned.
Telemeter
Unregistered User
(11/12/02 7:52 pm) Reply
...
There are, to my way of thinking, two fundamental obstacles to effective voting:
1.) The identification of the voter;
2.) The sheer number of voters.
The only way an election can have the confidence of the people is if it is independently verifiable. It doesn't have to be independently verified, just verifiable. As long as the process is sufficiently exposed, the voters can feel confident that somebody somewhere being able to verify the election discourages attempts to subvert it. This election's virtual dearth of exit polling creeped me out big time! I had no sense that the incremental election results represented "grassroots" reality.
The votes need to be counted AND published where they are cast and AS they are cast. Secret ballots are fine, but these blind elections only invite manipulation. There's nothing wrong with each local municipality/precinct enjoying a sense of identity at watching the vote tally progress. The notion that it discourages people from voting when they know how the election is going is just another red herring. Sure, if the results are way lopsided, I may decide not to bother voting. So what?! If I need an excuse to not vote, I can always come up with one. And it could just as well work the other way, stimulating voter turnout in support of a failing candidate. No, it is enough to have an anonymous ballot, there is no value to democracy to have an election process that does not feel open, that appears to proceed from beginning to end without going through a discernable middle.
The last presidential election was decided by less than 600 votes in Florida. There was plenty of paper to play with--but it didn't matter. It was more important to have a timely result than to have a correct result.
wantingjustice
Unregistered User
(11/14/02 2:32 am) Reply
The answer to all the problems
In 1991 I put forth a Proposition America at:
independence-usa.com That answered all the problems we face today. Go look and answer these for yourselves.
James W Wright
Force your representatives to pass these.
has there been any exit polling?
we can use the absentee ballots as a verification of the booth ballots. This information has to be available somewhere and I hope someone does the analysis. I will always vote absentee ballot as it allows me many advantages over booth voting. Besides only a mindless pre-programed drone would go up to a touch-screen and believe they are about to registar an independent thought. Go back to written ballots, give voters a weekend to vote, give voters a tax credit for voting and verify all results by independent public commissions. God save America!
Atomicat
Unregistered User
(11/20/02 2:25 am) Reply
Voting procedures.
I've only recently become aware of what a total mess things are down south there with electronic voting machines. Reading about it the last two days has caused my testes to recede back where it's safe. I'm an old-school programmer and used to hack smart cards to enjoy your lovely sex 'n' violets DSS sat network so I know how vulnerable these toys are. Incredible that someone would think a $2000+ voting machine would be more efficient than a pencil and paper. Up here (in Canada) all votes in all elections are cast with paper ballots and hand counted. Final election results are posted the very next day and irregularities are extremely rare. I believe, if memory is correct, it took all of five hours to count all the ballots from our last federal election.
Atomicat
peabody71
Unregistered User
(4/26/03 3:31 am) Reply
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