🚀 go-pugleaf

On 20 Nov 2004 00:19:36 -0800, fountaingrove@hotmail.com (Barney Lyon)
wrote:

>Zogby was concerned about the difference between some of the exit
>polls (surveys of individuals who have just cast ballots) and the
>official vote counts.


http://cartercenter.org/doc1801.htm

During the day, the opposition leaders presented to us and their
supporters what turned out to be erroneous exit polling data that
showed Chavez losing the vote by 20 points or more, and they also sent
this information to their own people and to foreign news media.
However, the news media honored the CNE ruling against broadcasting
any kind of alleged voting results domestically. In the meantime, long
voter lines remained intact past the 4 p.m. closing time, past an
extended 8 p.m. closing time, and until midnight, when they finally
closed. A few people voted as late as 3 a.m.

At about 12:30 a.m., we and OAS leaders were invited to witness the
disclosure of the first electronic tabulation, which showed "No" votes
at 57 percent and "Yes" votes at 43 percent among the 6.6 million
votes counted at that time (of 10.5 million expected to vote). Gaviria
and I decided to invite the private media owners and opposition
leaders to my hotel suite to let them know about this and to tell them
that this was compatible with our own quick count results. The media
owners and some of the opposition said they would accept our judgment
while others were angry. We urged them to check their own sample
voting results and stated that we would obtain updated figures next
morning before making a public declaration of our judgment. We were in
Venezuela to remain neutral, to observe the electoral system, and to
make a careful and sound final assessment regarding whether the will
of the people is expressed. Chavez called me, and I urged him to wait
on any claim of victory until after a CNE public announcement and to
be generous and positive in his victory statement. He promised to do
so.

Finally, after three hours, we offered to the still irate opposition
leaders our services in resolving any of their remaining doubts before
we had to leave (after two more days). Having insisted all during
election day on a 20 point defeat for Chavez, their pollster (S�mate)
admitted before leaving that their data now showed only a five point
defeat and that quick count data were still being received. Early the
next morning, they reported that these results were reversed, with 55
percent supporting Chavez, but opposition leaders still were claiming
massive fraud and a victory for their side. Final voting results,
including the centers with manual ballots, showed 59-41 in favor of
Chavez, with his victory in 22 of the 24 states.

Gaviria and I had another press conference early in the afternoon on
Monday to confirm the legitimacy of the CNE returns. I called
Secretary of State Colin Powell to report our authentication of
results, and he promised to issue a statement from Washington
endorsing our findings.