Journalists Explain Election Night Mistakes

W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 21 -- The networks’ mistaken early calls ElectionNight that Al Gore — and later George W. Bush — had won Floridawere due in part to flawed exit polls in the Tampa area and a“significant computer error” in Volusia County’s election agency,CBS’ news chief told Congress.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward said in a letter to Rep. BillyTauzin, chairman of the House Commerce Committee’stelecommunications panel, that his network’s initial call for Goreat 7:50 p.m. ET on Nov. 7 was based on Voter News Service exitpolls and actual vote data, interpreted through tested statisticalmodels.

But at about 9:20 p.m., Heyward said in the letter releasedtoday, CBS found that exit poll results in the Tampa area hadoverstated Gore’s lead and that tabulated votes in Duval Countywere probably wrong. That call was retracted at 9:54 p.m.

When the networks then erroneously called Florida for George W.Bush a few hours later, Heyward said, “another series ofconfusions took place — including what at this juncture appears tobe a very significant computer error made by the Volusia CountyElections Department — which led to another series of bad calls bythe television networks and newspapers across the nation.”

That mistake has been traced to a faulty government computerdisk.

Tauzin, R-La., is investigating what led to the early electioncalls, how they affected voter turnout where the polls were stillopen and whether any inherent biases were involved, partisan orotherwise. Tauzin, planning congressional hearings in January, today released responses from the networks and The AssociatedPress to a series of questions he has asked in preparation.

‘We Were as Good as the Information’

CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN and The AP make up the consortium thatuses Voter News Service exit polls and actual results to projectelection results. The AP never called Florida for Bush but didgive, and then retract, the state’s critical 25 electoral votes toGore earlier in the night.