At 02:34 PM 1/6/01 +0000, J. Williams wrote:
>
>The entire nation is not what I talked about in my post. I'm
>referring to voters in an individual state which is the same problem
>writ small. Voters in the panhandle region of Florida were confronted
>with electronic media calling the election before closing time.
true ... but the principle is exactly the same
this assumes of course that voters are really thinking about the electoral
college ... if they are NOT thinking of the electoral college ... then why
would they NOT go vote just because NBC said that al gore won the state? in
the case that the person is thinking that my vote counts like any other
vote ... then, to them, their vote would either make it more of a gore win
or less of a gore win ... but that their vote would make some difference in
the vote total ... and hence the country total ... this might actually
suggest that they would increase their liklihood of going to vote IF they
were really thinking about the us of a total for the popular vote and
thinking that if NBC had said al gore won ... the voter thinks that if
he/she goes and votes for bush ... that this will lessen the chance of al
gore winning in the us of a
if the person has clearly got the electoral college on his/her mind AND NBC
said that al gore had won ... THEN those in the panhandle who were for bush
might not make the effort ... why should they? their cause would have been
lost ...
the general fact is ... the PRESS hounds and hounds about it being the
electoral college vote that counts and ... we all have emblazend in out
minds that blue and red us of a map .. with blue STATES and red STATES ...
and the electoral count totals ... and THAT is what is being pounded into
the viewers and listeners' minds ... so, under that scenario ... the
problem is more widespread that the panhandle voters in florida ... it will
spread to anyplace where polls might still be open and, if the tallies look
like one candiate will win over the other ... THAT is what can discourage
any other potential voter from making the trip to the precinct voting booth
... and casthing their ballot
it is not as much that networks project STATE victories ... prior to all
polls being closed ... it is the overarching notion that media will report
on the results of the election as fast as they can get their hands on them
... no matter if 1/2 the county has not voted already or not
that is the fundamental problem that has to be addressed and as one other
poster said ... a complete blackout of any reporting on results until all
polls are closed is the ideal solution ...
but, how that could be pulled off, i have no idea
==============================================================
dennis roberts, penn state university
educational psychology, 8148632401
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
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