Networks trying to prevent polling info. leaks. Exit Polls have been wrong.

Once again, television networks are looking to Election Night with some apprehension, trying to avoid a repeat of the past two presidential cycles when initial exit polls suggested victories for John Kerry and Al Gore.

Net execs say this time around they’re deploying a series of measures to prevent the early leak of polling information, as well as to make adjustments for skewed sampling of respondents as they leave the polling booth. With at least a dozen battleground states where votes for the two candidates are expected to be close, networks will have to resist the competitive temptation to project winners based on exit polls, said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.

“In projecting races in those states, our desire is to be right,” Schneider said. “If that means being more thoughtful and steady, that’s fine.”

In 2000, exit poll data led to the networks calling Florida for Gore, only to pull back when the actual vote count came in. Of course, they also had to retract their later call for George W. Bush after the hair-thin results threw the entire election in dispute.

In the 2004 election, initial exit polls gave flawed and incomplete information about voting in dozens of states. When the data leaked over the Internet, many assumed that Kerry was on his way to a resounding victory, to the point where even his campaign manager said to him, “Can I be the first to call you Mr. President?”

Rest of the Story Here at Variety. 

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