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2004 US Presidential Election
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November 02, 2004
Maine | Potential Problem with Maine Exit Polling

Massive amounts of early voting in Maine may potentially distort the accuracy of Tuesday exit polling, harming the ability of news organizations to quickly and accurately project the state’s winner.

In some communities, one-third or more of all registered voters had cast their ballots by the end of Monday.

“We could be almost at 40 percent,” Mooney said Monday afternoon as a line of absentee voters stretched through the City Hall basement. More than 6,000 of South Portland’s 16,824 registered voters had voted with absentee ballots by Monday afternoon.

In Scarborough, about 5,600 of 14,004 registered voters voted by Monday afternoon. “It will be over 40 percent by the end of the day,” said Tody Justice, Scarborough’s town clerk.

In Brunswick, more than 20 percent of the 16,200 registered voters had cast absentee ballots. In Windham, absentee voters started lining up 30 minutes before Town Hall opened Monday. And in Portland, which expects to receive about 9,000 early ballots, hundreds of people stood in line for more than an hour before casting absentee votes at City Hall.

Its also true that similar problems may occur in other states- like Florida- that have expanded early voting programs this year. Stay tuned.

Source: Portland Press Herald.



Posted by Christopher Johnson at November 2, 2004 08:17 AM | TrackBack
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