Has anyone here EVER been exit polled?

[Junkdrawer]

I've been Googling and one long standing question about exit polling are questions as to how many precincts are sampled, or even if there are truly that many people working for the exit poll companies:

In a telephone interview I had with long-time VNS communications director, Lee C. Sharpio, she agreed to the 1964 date. But that's about all she would reveal. There is no transparency to VNS. Shapiro will not tell you how big their budget is, nor who hires the 46,000 people she claims they use on election night to collect exit polling data, nor will she give you any proof that these 46,000 employees exist...no phone logs, no emails lists, no documents to prove that they do what they say they do. Shapiro would not let me talk to any employee of VNS's regular staff of 30. She says that VNS will not let anyone witness their operations on election night nor would she disclose its location. VNS has no website and a very uninformative brochure.

http://www.ecotalk.org/VoterNewsService.htm

I'm 50 yrs old and I've been voting since I was 18 and yet I've never seen an exit pollster.

The CA Exit Polls were done by Edison/Mitofsky Research. They are also known as National Elections Pool and were formed shortly after VNS disbanded. Here's an article from their site:

Media Group in Deal to Conduct Exit Polls

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) -- The six news organizations that disbanded Voter
News Service last month signed a contract Tuesday with two
veteran polling experts to conduct exit surveys of voters during
the 2004 presidential election.

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and The Associated Press
announced they had reached an agreement with Warren Mitofsky of
Mitofsky International and Joseph Lenski of Edison Media
Research. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
....

Mitofsky and Lenski have spent many years in the business.
Mitofsky pioneered a sample precinct polling system while
working with CBS and ran a predecessor of VNS. Lenski worked
for him before starting his own firm. Mitofsky built a limited
exit polling operation for CNN during the 2002 election.
....

While there might have been other options for building a new
exit polling system, the former members of VNS ``felt that this
was a bird in the hand,'' Mason said.

http://www.mitofskyinternational.com/

[realFedUp]

1. Nope

never seen one.

[IkeWarnedUs]

2. I have never been exit polled

My first election was Jimmy Carter for president.

I have voted in every election with a national race and all but 2 that were just local.

Over the years I lived in various Chicago suburbs.

I have NEVER even seen an exit poller.

[RobertSeattle]

3. Off Topic...

"Leak Probes" and "Exit Polls" sound downright painful!

:silly: (We need to have a little humor here today!)

[Warpy]

4. Shoot, I'm older than you are

....and I've voted in half a dozen states, some of them in close national races where you'd think they'd be wondering how people were voting. My guess is that exit pollers are only at selected spots at selected times, usually the very early morning so that they can combine their figures for the evening news shows.

I've certainly never seen one of them.

[libertad]

5. I've been voting in every election for 22 years, first thing in the

morning and have NEVER been exit polled or even seen this being done.

[Drifter]

6. I have been exit polled ...

on a local school issue.

I do not believe they exit poll everywhere. It is done in "Sample" areas. I believe these are areas that seem to accurately predict (or follow) the state wide result.

For example they would not poll in a precinct that is heavily democratic (or republican), because they will not always match the state wide result. they look for precincts that are evenly split, or tend to change majorities between the parties, but have a record for matching the state wide result (or trend).

Cheers
Drifter

[Junkdrawer]

7. There were many posts from CA DUers last night...

and no one reported seing an exit poller.

[arwalden]

8. I Think I Would LIE LIE LIE To An Exit Poller

Just to fuck with them.

So I guess technically, I would actually BE the margin-of-error.

-- Allen

[booksenkatz]

9. Yyyyyyyyy..... no. As a matter of fact I haven't!

I'm 43 (next month), voting in every election big and small since age 18, lived in Texas, Florida and Michigan. I don't even know what this exit poll feller looks like. Tall feller, is he?
:shrug:

[semass]

10. Yes!

For 2 consecutive Presidential elections 1984 and 1988 (pre-VNS) CBS had exit pollers at my Precinct. Both elections they had a white 18 Wheeler with the big black "eye" parked in front of my precinct. I guess my precinct was chosen because it was typical of most of the smaller cities in Massachusetts in the 80s, urban, overwhelmingly white, ethnic, blue-collar, Catholic and Democratic.

After you voted they selected people who were exiting the precinct and if you agreed to participate they handed you a clip board with a survey. I wasn't asked in 1984 but I was asked in 1988.

[Padraig18]

11. I was exit polled last November. n/t