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.