New consortium formed to provide data on elections

News organizations have, as expected, formed an election polling and projection consortium, the National Elections Pool, to replace the Voter News Service, which was disbanded after it failed to come up with accurate data in the 2000 and 2002 elections.

The consortium of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News and Associated Press has hired Mitofsky International and Edison Media Research, each headed by a veteran TV exit poll executive, to provide exit poll data and winner projections for the 2004 general elections and early presidential primaries. AP will conduct vote counts for the same races.

Previously, VNS had provided polling and vote counts, which complicated the election night work and may have contributed to the failures, network executives said.

-- Elizabeth Jensen