Not Your Sweetie

Voter News Service (like Voting's) - Future in Question


Fri Jan 3, 3:53 PM ET


By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - After two elections in which their system failed, six major news
organizations are considering revamping or scrapping the organization they
built
to count votes and conduct voter surveys.

Representatives from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel
and The Associated Press are scheduled to meet Monday to
talk about the future of Voter News Service.

In a much-publicized failure during Election Night 2000, VNS
provided information that twice led television networks to
incorrectly declare a winner in Florida, the key to the
presidential
election. The results there weren't determined until weeks
later.

VNS built a new system for 2002, but on election night was
unable to provide its members — and others who paid for the
service — with results from exit poll surveys. Nearly two
months
later, those results still haven't been delivered. The surveys
supplement the raw vote count with details on why people
voted as they did.



The options were described by a network executive who spoke on condition of
anonymity; all of
the consortium members have been asked not to speak publicly about their
deliberations."


Now, we do know that the Florida winner predictions were accurate (as they were in each and every state not governed by a candidate's brother). We know that the 2002 election results are highly suspect and the VNS last minutes decision not to air their numbers doesn't add any confidence. So, what kind of secrets do those network executives share?