Adios, VNS - On Election

Adios, VNS - On Election Night, 2002, I made one observation that I figured was just too far out to hope for : noting the absence of Voter News Service reports, I though it's be neat if we never had to deal with their irritating, unnecessary, and possibly result-skewing predictions again.

I truly can't make it up fast enough - VNS has assumed room temperature:

In November 2000, flawed information from VNS twice led networks to erroneousely declare a winner in the presidential election in Florida, the state that proved to be key to the outcome. The state's results were not determined until weeks later after recounts and a court battle that was resolved by the Supreme Court in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore.

Following that embarrassment, VNS contracted with Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based research company, to rebuild its system. But in the 2002 election, VNS was unable to provide its members and other clients with results from exit-poll surveys. This material is used to help make projections of winners and to supplement the vote count with an analysis of why people voted as they did.

Good riddance. May their successors have just as much trouble.

Posted by Mitch at January 13, 2003 10:57 PM