VNS Data From '02 Midterm Votes Released

[WillyT]

<snip>

Ten months late, exit poll data that shed light on why Republicans scored their unusual 2002 midterm election victory are finally becoming available.

Voter News Service collected the information but couldn't deliver it on election night because computer systems designed for VNS by an outside contractor failed.

That failure, coupled with data problems in 2000 that led television networks to prematurely declare George W. Bush the presidential winner, prompted the news organizations to shutter VNS. The consortium included ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press.

After a delay caused by having to manually input results from more than 16,000 paper questionnaires into a computer system, VNS members set the material aside as they decided the consortium's fate. Then they asked four independent survey research experts from academia to review the data.

The panel concluded the information is "of comparable utility and quality to past VNS exit polls, and we recommend that it be released for public use."

<snip>

Link: http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-2002-exit-polls,0,1442064.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Whaddaya think folks???

:shrug:

[arcane1]

1. "systems designed for VNS by an outside contractor failed"

who the heck was this contractor?

[WillyT]

2. Good Question !!! --- HEY BEV, What Do You Make Of THIS ???

:shrug:

[jos]

3. "More people identified themselves as Republicans than in 1994"

:wow:

We're lucky the results weren't worse than they were.

[Nottingham]

4. I think we had some stolen Elections and Election Fraud

:bounce:

[0rganism]

5. Looks like they finally found a way to make the demographics fit the fraud

Thanks for keeping democracy compromised, Battelle Memorial Institute.

[LearnedHand]

8. Battelle is a huge government contractor...

...right up there in the Bechtel league.

[goobergunch]

6. But Senate and Governor's races not released

The panel reviewed only the national exit poll, which is geared toward whether respondents reported voting for a Democrat or Republican for U.S. House. VNS also conducted state exit polls in U.S. Senate and governor's races in 2002 but those data have not been reviewed or released.

Gee, I wonder why...especially the Georgia results. :grr: :grr:

[ewagner]

7. In other words...

they really didn't release anything that could be used to explain the 6-out-of-6 unexpected Senate victories....

...'this data is about as helpful as dive brakes on a turtle....

[AndyTiedye]

10. "Bad Data"

> they really didn't release anything that could be used to explain the 6-out-of-6 unexpected Senate victories....

There was a problem with that data. They had bad data. The data was bad.
The data was sooooo bad that they just couldn't release it.


Remember when the VNS guy said that in 2000 about Florida?

[Jolene]

9. The company was Battelle...

The company that created the software for VNS was Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio. Battelle spokeswoman Katy Delaney confirmed that Battelle had a contract with VNS and referred further inquiries to Lee C. Shapiro at VNS. Shapiro said VNS had no comment beyond the statement it issued on election day. Linda Mason, CBS News vice president and a VNS board member, told AP the company will release exit poll data at some point. ''There will be a document of record, but it will probably be more a historical document of record than an immediate news kind of thing.'' Interestingly, Battelle is one of several donors with ties to military intelligence and the Office of Homeland Security who contribute to the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), a government-funded coalition of some 5000 anti-drug community groups. In December 2001, Resident Bush's pronouncement that drug use supports terrorism coincided with the signing of a bill that could double CADCA's $50 million funding in the next five years.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14564

[aquart]

11. Amazing. VNS did so well before it computerized.

Wonder why that is?

(I'm one of hundreds of students who used to work election nights on the VNS phones in their WTC offices.)

[Devils Advocate NZ]

12. Was newsday one of the organisations...

involved in that recount of the florida votes? You know the one where the headlines said Bush had won, but the articles proved he had lost?

I ask this becuase the article gave no actual figures, just "highlights". I mean, after all that has happened in the US media over the last decade or more, we are supposed to take their word for it that the figures show what they say they show?

Not me. I think I will wait until someone actually presents some figures before I will believe these "highlights".