Election Night 2000 in 5 minutes

[Reaganfan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sBr6b6SAA

No matter what happens this year, let's hope to never have a night that stressful again.

[Torie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sBr6b6SAA

No matter what happens this year, let's hope to never have a night that stressful again.

Yes, and hopefully it taught the networks to never, ever, rely on exit polls, but wait until hard numbers come in in enough key precincts, to verify or impeach the exit polls. It was just horrible network malpractice.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Yeah, for some reason exit polls were pretty good in the 90s, but not so much now. Some networks seemed to be forgetting that lesson last time though, as 3 of them called Wisconsin really quickly despite Romney leading in the early returns from the state.

[MT Treasurer]

Yeah, for some reason exit polls were pretty good in the 90s

Not the ones for GA and NH.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Yeah, for some reason exit polls were pretty good in the 90s

Not the ones for GA and NH.

Or Florida, or Delaware, or New York.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sBr6b6SAA

No matter what happens this year, let's hope to never have a night that stressful again.

Unfortunately, it probably will happen again.  The media continues to rely on exit polls for their calls instead of raw vote totals.

[SingingAnalyst]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sBr6b6SAA

No matter what happens this year, let's hope to never have a night that stressful again.

Unfortunately, it probably will happen again.  The media continues to rely on exit polls for their calls instead of raw vote totals.

This. It is not at all unlikely that the 2016 election will be won by the PV loser. Large states such as OH, VA and CO are likely to be close, and a blown call on any of them could affect the outcome.

[TonyP63]

Sad!

[Calthrina950]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sBr6b6SAA

No matter what happens this year, let's hope to never have a night that stressful again.

Unfortunately, it probably will happen again.  The media continues to rely on exit polls for their calls instead of raw vote totals.

This. It is not at all unlikely that the 2016 election will be won by the PV loser. Large states such as OH, VA and CO are likely to be close, and a blown call on any of them could affect the outcome.

How prescient this turned out to be! Though Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado were not as close as may have been supposed here.

[South Dakota Democrat]

Yeah, for some reason exit polls were pretty good in the 90s, but not so much now. Some networks seemed to be forgetting that lesson last time though, as 3 of them called Wisconsin really quickly despite Romney leading in the early returns from the state.

The fact that Romney was leading early on means absolutely nothing.  Obama still won it by 7 in the end - totally depends where the votes are coming from.  They have statistical models that can extrapolate what the vote will ultimately look like based on what they're seeing in the early numbers (regardless of who is leading overall at that moment).  South Carolina, for example, often gets called for the Republicans fairly quickly even though the Democrat is leading at the moment in the early count.

Edit:  Didn't realize this was a super old thread when I first replied, but my point stands.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Yeah, for some reason exit polls were pretty good in the 90s

Not the ones for GA and NH.

They called Democrat Dick Swett the winner of the 1996 NH senate race, which ended up being a blown call.

[Calthrina950]

Yeah, for some reason exit polls were pretty good in the 90s

Not the ones for GA and NH.

They called Democrat Dick Swett the winner of the 1996 NH senate race, which ended up being a blown call.

And 20 years prior to Bush-Gore, in 1980, NBC erroneously projected Herman Talmadge as the winner in Georgia's Senatorial race, a mistake which they never corrected that night. That race was of course won by Mack Mattingly, who became the state's first Republican senator since Reconstruction. 1980, as I recall, was the first election in which a network made its projections on the basis of exit polls, and NBC called Reagan the winner before its competitors ABC and CBS did, which caught them off guard.