Posted on 12/09/2004 2:21:14 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Following an Election Day prediction that Democratic candidate John Kerry would win more than 300 electoral votes and the presidency, one of America's most well known polling firms continued the job Wednesday of explaining its flawed projection.
Shawnta Watson Walcott, communications director for Zogby International, joined a group of liberal Democrats at a faux congressional hearing focused on whether fraud influenced the Nov. 2 outcome.
"... it has become increasingly clear that this election has produced unprecedented levels of suspicion regarding its outcome, and we join this panel discussion in an attempt to find a resolution to these issues," said Walcott, who represented the firm's president and long time political pollster John Zogby at the forum sponsored by Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee.
On Election Day, Zogby predicted that Kerry would win 311 electoral votes. For much of that afternoon, he also rated the state of Virginia as too close to call. Not only did President Bush end up winning Virginia by 9 percentage points over Kerry, he won 286 electoral votes, over 3.3 million popular vote more than Kerry and, of course, re-election.
But with a Rayburn House Office Building meeting room as the backdrop, Judiciary Committee Democrats, liberal special interest groups and individuals like Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder Jesse Jackson Wednesday alleged that the election had been marred by fraud and malfunctioning voting machines.
Walcott told the group assembled that Zogby International had questions of its own pertaining to the election.
"We have received thousands of letters and phone calls regarding irregularities - many of which center on early exit polling results that were uncharacteristically inaccurate in several battleground states; questionable practices at polling stations that may have resulted in votes not being counted accurately; and in Ohio, as with other swing states, the automated Diebolt machines were particularly disturbing because they offered no voting receipts" she said.
"It is with this intention that we recommend that a blue ribbon bipartisan panel be developed to investigate the allegations discussed here today ..." Walcott added.
Later, another noted political observer questioned the wisdom of Walcott attending the partisan event at the Rayburn Office Building.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Zogby polling may have crossed a line in its call for an investigation of the election results.
"It's highly unusual for a pollster who claims not to be partisan to issue such a call [for an investigation]," Sabato told CNSNews.com .
When asked whether he thought Zogby might be trying to spread the idea of voter fraud to explain his mistaken pre-election prediction, Sabato responded, "I can't comment on [Zogby's] motives. I have no idea. But I can tell you this. This whole [election fraud] hullabaloo is malarky."
In explaining her presence at Wednesday's meeting, Walcott said she was offering "recommendations that may help restore the dignity and public confidence in the democratic process -- a process that is clearly worth protecting."
But Sabato said such criticism of the election process were without merit.
"There is absolutely no chance that the election was stolen, and there is absolutely no chance that the election results will be reversed in Ohio -- regardless of how many investigations are done," Sabato added.
Democrats have centered most of their allegations of election mismanagement or wrongdoing on Ohio, even though President Bush beat Kerry in the state by more than 135,000 votes.
Sabato also ridiculed the assertion by Zogby International that its exit polls were "uncharacteristically inaccurate" in 2004. "They have been characteristically inaccurate in 2000, 2002, 2004 -- wrong three times in a row and highly inaccurate," Sabato said.
"So talking about cynicism, the cynicism is being generated by these wild claims. Was it a perfect election? No. Has there ever been a perfect election in the history of the world? No," Sabato concluded.
See Related Article:
Jesse Jackson: 2004 Election 'Ain't Over' (Dec. 8, 2004)
E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
There ain't nothing to explain here. Zogby was hoping that their "predictions" of a Kerry landslide would be a self-fulfilling prophesy. They figured that a lot of Americans would vote for Kerry if the media predicted him to win big. Wrong-o. The only advantage rat boy ever had was his inner-city voting blocks and widespread voter fraud. His nutjob wife lost it for him as much as his fraudulent military service.
Pssst
Zogby
it's over,,,,you blew it.
Now run along you silly twit.
So, in other words, the predictive value of Zogby's polling lies solely in his lengthy track record of producing wildly inaccurate results on a consistent basis.
Therefore, the way I see it, Zogby's track record is unblemished, simply by virtue of the fact that his prediction of this year's election results were crap....just like his predictions of the election results two years ago.
Therefore, I think he should be nominated for pollster of the year.
THE GUY'S NEVER OFF!
Zogby, an Arab-American, had an axe to grind against Bush and skewed the polls to try to advantage Kerry. Nothing else explains this.
".........and in Ohio, as with other swing states, the automated Diebolt machines were particularly disturbing because they offered no voting receipts" she said.
Thank you Mister Zogby for taking all those Democrats to the crest of the wave in the morning and then letting me watch the wipeout in the evening....awesome dude!
ZOGBY=LIBERAL HACK.
LOL
I'd call him a "Judas", but that would presume that he has some introspective, self-examining aspect that has yet to manifest itself.
In truth, the guy is as unidimensional as a sheet of looseleaf paper.
Zogby, is a Kerry Koll-Aid drinker, and as such he was hell bent on having him win even if it involved trashing what was left of his business.
When we consider the fake exit polls, adn the skewed polls just before the election it is easy to see that ploos are a tool of the Socialist Left and their media shills.
Considering the FACT that the exit polls were slanted (see most notably the male v female breakdown), almost certainly purposely this time around, using them to argue the real vote tally is somehow wrong is rich.
What you won't hear any fraud conspiracy theorists talk about is that the majority of polls done before the election had Bush winning. That just doesn't fit into their theory, so they leave that part out.
Zogby, two years hence:
(Rattling tin cup.)
GIMME A DOLLA! I'M BROKE, B*TCH!
(Props up pie chart. Uses it for stool. Uses old Lazio-Clinton graphs for kindling.)
"We were told that if you were for one party, you would vote on one day, on November 2, but if you were the member of another party -- a party that over 88 percent of African Americans supported in this last election -- your day to vote was two days later," Shelton said.
"And indeed people came out to vote two days later and found out they could not cast that vote because of the kind of trickery that [they] were still experiencing," he added. "The trickery has become much more insidious than ever before."
My word. Where does one start? Do these people live on another planet? Where in the world had they been for the last year? Did anyone ever hear that there were two election days? As far as I can remember, election day has always been the first Tuesday in November. Aren't these people educated on election procedures by their precints? This woman has got to be lying.
Rasmussen was the most accurate poll-outside of the Field Poll-during this election cycle.
Uh...Jesse in 2000 you were the one that pushed for the very reforms you now decry.
zogby who never heard of it.
Anyone that stupid shouldn't be allowed to vote.
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