EAST-WEST POLL CLOSINGS Exit Polls and the Media

"People complain that it is not right for reporters to create a phony suspense by sitting on poll results the night of an election. Some argue that election night reporting resembles the early days of baseball broadcasting where the announcers knew the final score but would not tell you. When reporters tell the outcome in some states before the polls have closed, it creates three problems. First, western states have a poor voter turnout. Second, it discourages potential voters. Third, the polls are unreliable." MA

"A lot of people were . . . angered in the last election due to the fact that the people on the eastern coast already knew the winner of the election hours before the last vote was cast." NY

"Television networks have been criticized for predicting the winner of elections before the polls have even closed on the west coast. Some stations on the west coast refused to air coverage of the elections because political forecasting discourages voters from participating in the election process. KS

"If television and radio would not reveal the results until the polls are closed in the west, there might be greater turnouts at the booths. . . Hopefully this essay will stir some thoughts in the minds of people who can do something about irresponsible media and keeping results secret until all booths are closed." OR

"These (exiting polls) tell who the projected winner or loser is going to be. This can be bad for the people in California when they hear that one candidate is winning by a landslide. They might not even vote because they will not think that their vote will make any difference. It is being debated whether they should wait and tell the public who will be the president until 2:00 a.m. eastern standard time. This way they could prove if the exiting polls have any effect on voters." KY

". . . television networks should wait until 9 PM central time on election night before releasing results in order to give most of the voters a chance to get out and vote before they hear any projections that may influence their decisions." WI

"Predicting the winner before all polls were closed, in my opinion, was not a wise decision. California is the largest state in the U.S. in terms of population as well as electoral votes. It is also on the west coast, 3 hours behind New York, where the networks reside. California was considered to be the key state in the elections. Whoever won California was sure to take the presidency. However, Bill Clinton had already been projected the winner before the California polls had even closed. The media had affected the results in California by making their votes unimportant." MD

"Exit polls should be done away with. It is very annoying to see who is most likely to win before a person leaves the house to vote. Undecided voters may suddenly, on impulse, decide to vote for the leading candidate in the exit polls. People who were going to vote for the underdog may change their minds after seeing how badly their candidate is doing in the exit polls. Nobody should know who will win the election until all the votes are tallied and the winner is announced." CA

"On election day, television networks 'fight' to see who can release the earliest poll predictions and results. Voters hear which candidate is in the lead before they have the opportunity to vote!" PA

"The high coverage on election day with the stressing of early exit polls and early projections on the outcome has a negative impact on voter turnout. People have a 'one vote doesn't count' mentality and when they hear the candidate they were planning to vote for is losing they don't bother to go out and vote. On the flip side, if a voter hears their candidate is ahead in the projections they may declare victory early and not go out and vote. The east coast coverage has been proven to have a negative effect in the west." MI

"The media shouldn't be allowed to cover the election unless all voting hours are done nationwide." MN

". . . one vote is significant in the local and state elections. If people do not vote in the national elections, they do not vote for the issues in their states. Because of the rivalry between national news stations to be the first to report the results, state elections feel the wrath. The media should withhold all results until all the polls across the continent have closed. People on the west coast would feel like their vote really did make a difference." OR

"Voters should not be advised, one way or another, how the election is going until the election is over. By not knowing who is winning or losing, voters would feel that their votes truly do 'count.' This would provide for a more accurate count of what the people truly want. It would also make for a better voter turnout." FL

"A real point for controversy is the exit polls done by television networks. . . the networks should take into consideration that some people want a little suspense." WI

"A heated argument began on the evening news the night of the election. One of the newscasters believed that the people on the east coast are entitled to see their results, and disagreed about withholding the information until the west coast was finished. The correspondent believed the opposite. One of the other newscasters stated that he thought people on the east coast should just wait until midnight to reveal the winner and forget about showing the progress of the election until then. Needless to say, the man with compromise settled the argument." OH

"I support Rube Goldbert of the New York Times with the idea of extending daylight savings time for two weeks in the west, keeping east coast polls open until 9:00 PM, while requiring the west coast polls to close at 7:00 PM. This system creates a 'uniform poll closing' which keeps westerners from having a devalued vote when eastern votes are in already. Knowing the results of an election before all the votes are in undermines the purpose of democracy and the importance of the people." NY

"The media, however, decides that there will be 'no joy in Mudville' and tells, not once but over and over and over again, who the winners will be (with a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points). They told the ending!!! " IN