Restrictions on networks considered

Tauzin is considering introducing legislation that would clamp down on the news organizations by requiring them to hold off declaring winners of states until the polls have closed. However, a spokesman for Tauzin said the congressman is not trying to keep the networks from making projections.

Heyward's letter was the most detailed of several letters Tauzin made public from the correspondence that he received from television networks and The Associated Press -- the companies that run the Voter News Service.

VNS is the service that coordinates the news organizations' election data gathering operation.

Tauzin has accused the news organizations of dampening voter turnout by making an early and incorrect call in Florida, and thereby discouraging residents from voting in Florida's western panhandle.

Tauzin also said the networks' early projections might have discouraged voters in western states from going to the polls. The networks denied their erroneous calls had tilted the election.

ABC News President David Westin said the candidates had needed more than Florida's 25 Electoral College votes to win when his network withdrew its projection that Gore had carried the state.

"Thus, there was no point during the evening when it was likely or even possible that voters would decide not to vote simply because of the erroneous projection of the presidential race in Florida," Westin wrote.

Uniform poll closing time sought

"ABC also continues to support uniform poll closing legislation," Westin wrote. His letter included detailed answers to 13 questions raised by Tauzin.

"We believe this is a sound means of addressing concerns about projections made before all polls nationwide have closed," Westin wrote.

All the networks said they were conducting internal investigations into the false calls, and hoped that the error would not be repeated.

CNN has named an independent advisory panel to evaluate both its election night projection procedures and the work of VNS.

Joan Konner, dean emerita of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, James V. Risser, a two- time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and Ben J. Wattenberg, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, are on the panel.

"Their recommendations will help us determine the appropriate actions to take to ensure that the best and most thoughtful safeguards are adopted by CNN in the future," said CNN News Group Chairman and CEO Tom Johnson.