How can the 2nd place candidate, with 1% reporting, be projected a winner?

[chonald]

How can the 2nd place candidate, with 1% reporting, be projected a winner?

Am I missing something?

[Epic]

exit polls

[F3d]

Exit polls. It's clear.

[MJU1983]

Propaganda?

https://twitter.com/#!/mju1983/status/160880781072400384


Interesting how the MSM already had their "news" written before the polls closed. #SouthCarolina #GOP2012

[kylejack]

How can the 2nd place candidate, with 1% reporting, be projected a winner?

Am I missing something?
Exit polls. They knew Gingrich won before the polls even closed, but it's bad form to say so until the polls closed, hence why they projected him as soon as they closed.

[chonald]

What's an exit poll?

[Txrose4ever]

Exit polls were wrong in Iowa. I must admit I am flabbergasted that Santorum is ahead of Paul right now. Still plenty of time for that to change, and hope it does. Everyone thinkg Santorum will drop out after Florida, but if he takes third, I doubt it.

[newbitech]

I was wondering the same.

[seapilot]

Until 75% of the precincts are reporting its all professional speculation just like always.

[ssjevot]

I understand a lot of people mistrust statistics, but Gingrich winning was easy to project based on the exit polls. The chance of him losing was extremely low.

[torchbearer]

diebold. the results were enter prior to the votes today.

[dskalkowski]

Guys, it's not that hard to figure out..

1. Exit polls are polls taken by people who vote when they exit, and give a estimate of the support a candidate has. The polls are reported, and based on the district's population size ANYONE can make a prediction on the winner.

Exit polls are sometimes accurate, but it's all about strategy on where the votes come from and the exit poll demographic

[kylejack]

Exit polls were wrong in Iowa.
Not really, they didn't project a winner with exit polls in Iowa. The winner was projected from the official results very very late at night. Later those official results were found to be inaccurate.

[Austin]

Exit polls were wrong in Iowa. I must admit I am flabbergasted that Santorum is ahead of Paul right now. Still plenty of time for that to change, and hope it does. Everyone thinkg Santorum will drop out after Florida, but if he takes third, I doubt it.

Once CNN tabulated all of the data, their results were accurate.