Free Republic

...[T]he TV networks... say they have revamped the way they collect and analyze polling data, using more sophisticated equipment and better communications. To tone down their competitive instincts in "calling" states for either candidate, some are blocking their news desks from watching rivals' shows. All the networks are also striving to get their respective "decision desks" -- the units that make the calls -- to work more closely with the producers and reporters.... CBS News said the computers VNS used weren't sophisticated enough to compare voting data with historical information and were incapable of raising red flags where they were...

The major television news networks and The Associated Press are seriously considering dissolving their decadelong partnership in the Voter News Service, the Election Day polling organization that was at the heart of the problems they had in reporting the results of the last two national elections, network executives close to the discussions said. At the very least, the partnership will probably scrap the multimillion-dollar upgrade of the service's computer system, its main component, which has been fraught with technical problems, the executives said. The dissolution of the partnership would leave in doubt the news media's plans for reporting the results...

We heard last night that VNS decided its exit polling models were unreliable; hence, no races would be called until the raw vote provided substantial-enough evidence to warrant a prediction. Based on the final result, is there any doubt at all that VNS looked at the predictions and decided it simply wasn't possible the GOP would pickup 3-5 Senate seats and 5-15 House seats? I submit the models worked just fine, but when they didn't play into the media's preconceived notions the evidence was rejected as unreliable. Perhaps it's understable; let's take a look at the Florida gubernatorial contest. The...

VNS Scraps National Exit Poll Work 40 minutes ago By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Voter News Service abandoned its state and national exit poll plans for Election Night, saying it could not guarantee the accuracy of the analysis which media organizations use to help explain why people voted as they did. AP Photo Election Special Coverage News, tools, results and more. Go now. The decision did not affect VNS' separate operation for counting the actual vote. VNS also hoped to have limited information from the exit poll surveys to give its members guidance in projecting...

<p>14:38 PST NEW YORK (AP) -- Its operation riddled with errors, Voter News Service abandoned its state and national exit poll plans for Election Night, depriving media organizations of information to help analyze the vote.</p> <p>The decision did not affect VNS' separate operation for counting the actual vote. VNS also hoped to have limited information from the exit poll surveys to give its members guidance in projecting winners for individual races.</p>

It's not even 9:00 AM, and I have the shakes waiting for results. If anybody has any early results, post 'em here. Voting in my location in NJ was pretty heavy. At 7:00 AM there were already 5 of 8 lines filled in on the signature cards at my precinct.

Politics - AP Voter News Service Tests Poll Info. 1 hour, 14 minutes ago By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Hours before Election Day, Voter News Service said Monday it still hadn't worked all the bugs out of a new system designed to provide media organizations with exit polling information from voters. Election Special Coverage News, tools, results and more. Go now. As a precaution, NBC and CBS last weekend began conducting their own joint poll of voter attitudes about the midterm election. VNS, a consortium consisting of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and The...