Western Voters Fume Over Network Winner Calls

By Jennifer Auther/CNN

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 4) -- When 50 million people in the western half of the United States cast their votes Tuesday, they may already know who their next president will be.

Television networks are standing by their policy of projecting winners in a state after its polls have closed, based on exit surveys of voters leaving the polls.

That could mean the presidential race is declared on the basis of Eastern and Midwestern results alone, and that has Western voters upset. "I think it's wrong!" said one woman in California. "It gives a false impression. If you sample two out of two million, it doesn't mean anything!"

"I'm a fatalist about voting," said another California voter. "Whether I feel my candidate's going to win or not, I'm going to exercise my franchise, so I'll vote either way."

Many West Coast political activists are also fuming. California's Secretary of State Bill Jones has fired off a letter to each network. Signed by officials in seven other western states, the missive urges networks to hold off on predictions.

"When you exit poll, you end up in a situation where you're really telling the West Coast their vote doesn't count," Jones told CNN.

In 1980, networks projected early in the day that Ronald Reagan had beaten Jimmy Carter, leading Carter to concede. Millions of people in the West were still voting at the time and many were said to have walked away from the polls when they heard the news.

In 1996, some Republicans say that TV networks are trying to affect election results intentionally. Chairman of the California Republican Party John Herrington said, "The networks have got to know that they are suppressing the vote."

"You have the House of Representatives at stake," Herrington noted. "You have the presidential race, you have Prop. 209. There are six freshman congressman in the state of Washington. There's 10 swing seats in California." (Prop. 209 is the California ballot measure that would end affirmative action programs in state and local government.)

But other observers couldn't disagree more. CNN political consultant Warren Mitofsky said, "There's something over 18 studies about the effects of network projections on voter turnout, and to date, there's not one single study indicating any decline in voter turnout as a result of projections. This is a phony story!"

Jones says the networks have not responded the way he'd like them to, so voters can expect to hear who has done what in the East perhaps hours before the West has decided.

This story originally appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics."

Western Voters Fume Over Network Winner Calls

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