The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy
The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy
Well this certainly adds fuel to the Stolen Election meme.
Please note, however:
However, Freeman doesn't allege voter fraud, and neither do I. There are several good reasons for this:
All Freeman demonstrates is that these results couldn't have happened simply by chance. However, they might still might have been produced by systematic problems of some kind in the polling methodology.
Freeman knows this, so he then takes a look at possible sources of systematic error. He isn't persuaded that any of them stand up to scrutiny, but he also admits that there's just not enough data to say for sure. What's more, there might be some other source of error he's not aware of.
I've seen several indications that there really are some weird anomolies with the exit poll data. I mentioned one last night, and there's another one you can see right in the table above: the total national sample was about 13,000 voters, but the state level polls all claim to include about 2,000 voters. Obviously something is screwy there.
Finally, you have to posit a way in which the Bush campaign was able to rig the results in every single battleground state. Let's face it: it's a lot easier to think of ways in which the exit polls might be screwed up than to think up credible ways in which the Bushies could have pulled that off.
Those who know me won't be surprised to learn that I find the last reason the most compelling argument against the conspiracy.