FAQ about Exit Polling And Why John Kerry Won In 2004

[Stevepol]

5. Don't forget this qualifier though.

I'm not saying you're not right and the workers were not trained well, but since about 2002, when the results of elections began to register a significant red shift in every election, the polling companies have begun "adjusting" their results on the basis of new ideas about likely over-sampling of Democrats though there is no evidence that this over-sampling is actually happening. The only reason these "adjustments" are done for polls is because the exit polling is so consistently showing more Dem votes than are reported in the "actual" (machine counted) results. The polling companies are private companies remember and if they get a reputation for reporting results that do not match the "actual" (i.e., the machine counted) results, that company will not be trusted or stay in business long. This probably explains why the GA election in 2002 very quickly reported problems with the exit polling and the exit polls were discontinued for that election.