BALL OF CONFUSION:

Voter News Service Tests Poll Info. (DAVID BAUDER, Nov 4, 2002, AP)

Hours before Election Day, Voter News Service said Monday it still hadn't worked all the bugs out of a new system designed to provide media organizations with exit polling information from voters. [...]

VNS, a consortium consisting of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press, counts actual votes and also conducts exit polling in certain precincts. That information is used by its members to project winners in individual races on Election Night.

The consortium completely rebuilt its system in response to the 2000 election, when television networks twice used its information to make wrong calls in the decisive Florida vote for the presidential election.

VNS has expressed confidence in its ability to tabulate the votes on Tuesday, though its vote counting process had never been tested in its entirety. VNS members have access to a second, independently conducted vote count by the AP.

VNS also plans to use exit polling of how citizens voted, together with the actual vote count, to help project winners and losers.

Where the system has run into trouble is its attempt to tabulate the results of questions that reflect why voters cast their ballots as they did. VNS has yet to complete a full test of a national voter survey, said Ted Savaglio, VNS executive director.

Many close races; certain allegations of voter fraud; and the system isn't working right--it may be a very long night. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 5, 2002 12:29 AM