(Untitled)

[onefnjeep]

While perusing CNN.com tonight looking for information regarding the upcoming elections in Iraq I stumbled upon this story. The link can be found below. CNN states that in the most recent Gallup/CNN/ USA Today poll that if the election were held today President Bush would be reelected with 301 electoral votes, a candidate needs 270 to win the

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[csa945]

In the aftermath of the 2000 Florida debacle, a reporter also stated that some stations reported Florida as having gone for Gore soon after midnight Eastern time. At this point, the polls in the panhandle, which is on Central time had yet to close (not to mention that the votes of troops stationed oversees are counted into Florida's electorate). In short, some citizens who lived in the panhandle and intended to vote for Bush in the last hour of the election saw the report and figured that because Florida had already gone blue, there was no point in voting. I suppose the same could be said of possible Gore voters, who, thinking they had already won the state decided not to vote. In either case, faulty reporting effected the election, something that should never happen. I understamd that the newsmedia wants to break their stories as soon as possible, but they should at least wait until the story has happened before reporting on it. Now, everything happens so fast, that mistaken reports aren't just embarassments; they damage democracy.