Ten Reasons Why You Should Ignore Exit Polls

While I'm not a very big Sarah Palin fan (wait til you get there, you'll see), I couldn't help but come across this article with 10 reasons of why you ignore exit polls. Since I'm not a big fan of exit polls I agree with most of the reasons of why you should not take exit polls to heart.

Module 6

I think that exit polls are something that stands in the way of American voters on election night. While I think they are often very informative I also believe that they may have a great effect on whether or not people will get out and vote or if they will be influenced enough by the results to stay at home and not exerscise their civic duty because a "winner" has already been declared.

Exit polls are very informative and provide us with great information about who of what age votes for who and who of what color votes for who, but not all exit polls are 100 percent accurate. In exit polls we can go all the way to counties that were won in a state or what candidate won what demographic in what county or state. They are very in depth in that perspective. If exit polls really are exit polls though, why not wait til way later in the night to project your poll? During election night in November I was finding out who won Pennsylvania and Georgia at 8 o'clock at night. Is that a bad thing? Not for me I guess because I had already voted, but other people that haven't voted can almost be persuaded to not vote. If we're showing projected winners in those states that early it shouldn't be allowed because polls are usually open til 10 p.m in most states. That's still one more hour that could have gone any way, especially for the loser. Hearing that your candidate has already lost doesn't make you want to necessarily get out and vote. That's like going late to a football game and your friend calling you and telling you that it's already over. Doesn't sound right to me. Wait until the next morning.

I think that in this 24 hour news network world everyone is always looking to have higher ratings, and that is why the exit poll is taken so often. Whatever will boost ratings they will do. In 2000 noone knew who was going to be the next president the day after, yet every news network had figured out who would be president, whether it was true or not. Why is this allowed? If I'm in California and I'm learning that Obama has already more than half the votes needed to become president I'm a lot less likely to get out and vote for McCain because in a sense it's already "over".

We rely on the media too much in this time of technology. While I understand that candidates and their parties are always trying to figure out who will win where, it shouldn't be broadcasted to millions of Americans until the voting and counting of the votes has actually occured in all 50 states. By doing so I think that you could see a higher turnout rate in states, primarily west of the Mississippi that have already learned of who will be our next president by the time they sit down to eat dinner.

Key Democrats oppose Obama's tax deduction plan

Since all anyone can talk about right now is the economy here's some more soup for your soul. How much of an impact will these democrats have on this if they don't agree with it in the end. I'm sure conservatives don't have a problem with democrats being openly skeptical about this. Being hesitant of a plan like that has to have every day people raising their eyebrows.

Module 5

The role of the minority party I do not think should be taken lightly. If you look at how minority parties are they are usually pretty fiesty. They usually take the opposite stance on most issues from the majority (hence minority), but they also show up to debate with the majority everyday because they know that at some point they won't be the minority anymore. All these representatives in some way are still campaigning even though they are the minority because in order to make sure that they don't lose their seats they have to stick to their guns and take side with the party and people that voted them into that seat. I happen to think that people in the minority party are under even more pressure to keep their seat because in essence they have to stop the bleeding and try to make it possible for their party to gain some momentum and hopefully by the next election gain some seats so that they aren't the minority anymore.

There is no doubt that over time house members and senators seem to be getting more liberal and more conservative, creating an even bigger gap in middle. Does it make it harder to negotiate? Yes, of course. Just because you are the minority though doesn't mean that you don't have a say. Being able to persuade and having a good relationship with certain folk in the majority might be able to help you get your point across. What goes around comes around I think. Being a member of the minority is kind of like having President Obama's same message about hope and all that stuff he talked about in the fall while he was campaigning. Bi-partisanship is hard to grasp when noone can agree with eachother, but for the most part you hope that it creates some sort of deterrent before you vote on every issue just because your party voted that way. Being able to create deals with other senators could be a good way in order to try to pass a bill or bring up an issue with the majority. The key thing though with all this is though that one day the minority will be the majority, so you better play your cards right so when you are on the wrong end of the deal you don't get totally shorted.