Roundup
By Erica M
- MinnPost has a fantastic post on Minnesota’s congressional delegation and the Bailout Bill, including statements from the incumbents and the current challengers.
- Cool stuff coming up at the Riverview Theater
- Screening of Spirit of the Marathon in conjunction with the Twin Cities Marathon. Sat 10/4, $8, 3pm.
- The first VP debate (Thurs 10/2) and the 2nd presidential debate (Wed 10/15). Both debate screenings sponsored by SD 62 DFL, free, 8pm.
- Big media is suing the state of Minnesota. They think our new law requiring exit pollsters to stand back 100 feet from polling place doors is unfair. Can someone tell me if we really need exit polling anyway? Can’t we just wait for the actual results and not let groupthink and speculation sway our judgment (and stress me out)?
- Follow Gaylaxicon 2009 on Twitter: @gaylaxicon2009. (The Big Gay Sci-Fi/Horrror/Fantasy Convention is being hosted in Minneapolis next year.)
- MinnesotaPlaylist “provides information and inspiration for Minnesota’s performing arts. All content is free to read, including audition notices, talent profiles, in-depth articles and essays from great artists and writers and—coming soon—calendar listings and audience reviews. Posting a classified ad or talent profile costs a small fee.” An online magazine, it is, and it kicks off its inaugural issue by asking local performers “What is the function of the performing arts?”
Exit polls are critical to the study of political science. They are the only way that researchers can break down how certain age groups turned out, voted, certain geographic breakdowns, etc. Without exit polls, we would know virtually nothing about voter behavior.
Okay, that makes sense.
Even more importantly, media exit polls serve as checks and balances for the "official" count. Republicans have stirred everybody up against exit polling in recent years, precisely at the same time there are lots of reasons to believe they and their cronies are rigging electronic voting machines.
In 2000, shock waves went through the elections community when the results didn’t match exit polling. (Historically, exit polling had always been a very reliable double-check.) Conveniently, the GOP blamed the exit polling, and started calling for its elimination. Voter News Service, who has been doing the networks’ exit polling for decades, was shut down in 2004.
We should actually be calling for more checks-and-balances like exit polling in this system. Or we might as well not cast a ballot at all, but have Diebold appoint the president direcly.