I just noticed something that struck me as strange in the current mutation of the
Drudge Report. He has a headline that says:
ABC: There Will Be No Exit Polls In House Races. Here is the
screen shot in case the page changes.
However, if one clicks the links, there is no mention of exit polls.
I went back to check what type of exit polls they had in the past 3 election cycles (via CNN):
- in 2000, they had national exit polls and statewide exit polls. The nationwide exits polls asked a question about the US senate race, but not the house race.
Why I wonder.
- in 2002, the beleaguered VNS did not produce exit poll summaries, but seems to have used their precinct samples
- in 2004, they had a multitude of sections (using cross-tabs) including National: House section . Here is an interesting statistic based on the first table on that page: 48.8% voted for a Democrat vs 49.2% for a Republican, and the Republicans gained 4 seats to come up to 231 seats (if I remember correctly, the GOP contested in a lot more CDs than the Dems did that year).
That brings us to the present time. Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, the same firm that did the 2004 exit polls, is being used by all the networks this time. Their website says:
Exit Polls From Edison Media Research and Mitofsky
The Exclusive Source for Election Day Information
Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, on behalf of the major media outlets - will be conducting exit polls in several states on November 7, 2006 for the General Election. These voter surveys will provide political, demographic and geographic information detailing voters and whom they chose for Senator and/or Governor, as well as the results for some Statewide Propositions. Each individual election will have a separate crosstab and associated data screens.
The question then is: why not the house races?? (which they've done before, and if all CDs are sampled evenly, as they should be, getting proper data for this is not the issue).
Perhaps we should call and find out, as well as request them to sample and present those races as well. Here is their contact info (from the website):
Contact Info: Edison Media Research and Mitofsky
Call 866-729-1292 toll free or
email Aliciab@mindspring.com
After ending up at the receiving end of the exit poll fiascos in two previous presidential elections, we shoul pay closer attention to them pro-actively this time around. Therefore, I request you to recommend the diary for wider attention.