Saturday, May 12, 2012

The "Press" vs. Ace of Spades

The actual contributor here is "CAC", an AOSHQ reporter.

...Last Tuesday, with the help of a few carefully selected cheeseheads, we reported returns from Wisconsin for the recall primary. The method used wasn't even off the ground, but was successful enough for me to notice several glaring differences between what the #AOSHQDD had and the official Associated Press numbers. None of these were inaccuracies on our end. The differences resulted from a chronic delay in Dane County (Madison), Waukesha County, and others for a substantial part of the evening, and there is no reason to doubt we will see the same thing on the night of the recall.

... The simpler explanation which became glaringly obvious was poor reporting by the AP. 

Dane County reported all of its returns quickly and in substantial chunks through the evening: at about 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 95%, and 100% in, roughly. The time delay between the Dane County Clerk uploading the information and the Associated Press listing the numbers ran as much as an hour to an hour-and-a-half apart. There was no holding back of votes, just the reporting by the press. The same went for Waukesha, which updated at a surprisingly fast rate Tuesday. Even when all votes had been counted and uploaded, there was a sizable delay in reporting on the AP's part. In fact there was a delay in reporting nearly 30% of the statewide result....

But the taverns around the county offices were busy, no doubt.

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