Exit polls during the election

The long lines and waiting time did not deter the voters at the Dingman Township #1 polling place from taking our local exit poll. There were 2,266 electronic votes recorded at that site. We had 1554 voters fill out our exit poll ballot and vote in our poll. This represents 69 percent of all the voters at that polling place. What an amazing percentage that was. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea for me to include the U.S. Representative race on our ballot. Many people did not fill out that section, others who voted straight party were confused as to which candidate was their party’s choice. For that reason I will not include those results in this letter. The electronic machine percentages were Obama 42 percent, McCain 55 percent. Our exit poll percentages were Obama 48 percent, McCain 51 percent. I don’t know what to make of a possible ten percentage point difference between the electronic and exit ballots. With only about thirty percent of the voters not participating in our poll that would mean that two out of three who chose not to participate were McCain voters. In our previous polls the percentage of Democratic votes was always higher and Republican always lower than the machine totals, but almost always with a much smaller percentage point spread. In the one poll where the percentage point spread was larger, only 26 percent of voters took that poll. Perhaps any party that is locally in the minority would be more willing to take a poll, I don’t know, anyway, these were the results we got. We would like to thank all of the voters who participated with special thanks to Miral Haubner, Karen Cohen, Stephan Lanza, Geri Fanelli, and Bonnie Rodriguez for their help. Although the electronic machines are relatively easy to use, and poll workers have become more confident operating them, we would feel better if there were more checks and balances in our election system. We plan to keep working to do our best to insure the accuracy of your vote. Our election system must be improved so that voters feel confident that votes are counted and counted properly. Donald Minasian Milford