The Election Day Phase of the November 4 Election Verification Exit Poll
Election Integrity has completed the exhaustive Election Day phase of the 2008 Election Verification Exit Poll. With the Election Defense Alliance and The Warren Poll, we conducted exit polls at 56 polling sites (about 100 precincts) in 12 states. 350 interviewers covered these precincts with extraordinary thoroughness, approaching every exiting voter in many polling places, and in many cases generating response rates upwards of 75%.
This is the strongest data ever collected both for detecting election fraud
and for documenting the efficacy of exit polling. Two election officials in Ohio tried to
prevent us from conducting our polls, but a legal effort led by EI general
counsel Bob Fitrakis prevailed, permitting us to poll every site we selected.
Some election officials refused to post the official outcomes; in at least one Florida polling site, this occurred explicitly because we had conducted our poll there. That said, most election officials were helpful and fully supportive, some even offering official support in following up any indication of a corrupted count.
The margin in the presidential election was too decisive for possible fraud to affect the outcome, but this was not true in all of Tuesday's races. Suspicious patterns were also revealed within the presidential race. We are currently analyzing the data and will
post findings as they unfold.
* * * * * * *
To all those who participated and donated, I extend our appreciation and also my
congratulations. For the first time in twelve years, Americans have actually elected a president. The election integrity movement played a central role in this achievement. After a series of increasingly extreme anti-democratic elections and initiatives (e.g., HAVA and the spread of electronic voting), we may have at least mitigated the trends. But America’s election processing has hardly been fixed; nor will it be without our efforts. Whatever Obama's attributes as a politician and a man, his first act in Congress was to reject the challenge to Ohio's electors because he was "
absolutely convinced" that Bush
legitimately won the election. (
See also The Audacity of Hope, p. 7)
So please, stay involved and/or donate so that others may continue this work. We
have a mountain of
high quality data that needs to be coded and analyzed. We also hope to
follow up on disparities between official numbers and survey results by
counting ballots and other investigative efforts. Obama may really have
been America’s choice for President, but Election integrity remains no less critical an issue.
