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Early Release of Exit Polls Debated

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

ABC News and the online magazine Slate released exit poll data about the outcome of Michigan’s fiercely contested primary hours before polls were closed in the state Tuesday evening.

The disclosure raised a persistent controversy about whether such revelations will dampen the enthusiasm of voters who hear projections about their election before they cast their ballot. It also revealed a new wrinkle in the debate since the disclosures Tuesday were not made on television, but on the Internet.

ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings, in a chatty “preview” of his evening newscast released through the network’s Web site, wrote: “At the time we are writing this, we are seeing the first wave of exit polls from the Michigan Republican primary. The exit polls are one of the most fascinating tools we have to understand the electorate, and while we don’t rely on them to project winners and losers, at this time of the day they are a very good indication of who is doing what to whom. Right now, John McCain and George W. Bush are statistically dead even--not a deep breath between them.”

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ABC spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said no harm was done, and in fact voters in Michigan might have been inspired to participate since the exit polls showed “a dead heat.” Still, she said the network would not release such information again because it violates the company’s policy.

Slate columnist Jack Shafer wrote that it was hypocritical not to release such information to the public because major TV networks, Associated Press and 150 other media outlets all have access to exit polling via a media consortium called Voter News Service, and share it with friends and colleagues.

“The exit poll embargo that the media observes is a big joke,” he wrote in a column called “Git Yer Early Poll Numbers Here!” He then quoted poll results as of 2 p.m. in Michigan showing McCain leading Bush by 2 percentage points. Later results showed a tie.

Shafer could not be reached, but a Slate spokesman said, “We’ll just let the columns speak for themselves.”

Associated Press Managing Editor Jonathan Wolman said his organization was a founding member of the VNS consortium, and that it was vital not to release projections on winners because the information could easily change. For instance, early exit polls in New Hampshire had Bradley ahead, but Gore later won. ABC might have made an understandable mistake, he said, but the Slate columns were “the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Withholding exit poll information “gives people an honest vote, without somebody having characterized that their vote has already been nullified,” Wolman said. “It’s news material in the production stage if you will, and there’s plenty of material that is available and you don’t broadcast or publish it.”

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Exit polls ask people whom they have voted for and why, and are used to project a winner as well as determine what issues are important. For two decades, it has been considered taboo to release information about who is winning before polls are closed.

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