No Desh: I can answer that, if anyone’s still reading this thread.

I volunteered with AALDEF to exit-poll in NYC (specifically in Kensington, Brooklyn, where there are Pakistanis, Banglas, and Chinese folk).

And the method is exactly as you described it: we stood outside the polling place (in my case, the polling stations were set up in the gym of a school and the AALDEF volunteers stood in the lobby) and waited for our “target group” to arrive and then we pounced. And so sometimes there were questions among the exit-pollsters as to whether someone was Asian or not. Indeed, one of the ethnicity options on the form was “Latino” because apparently this mistake is made sometimes.

The exit-pollsters would politely ask Asian-looking people if they’d like to “participate in an Asian American voting survey” and then usually we’d have to explain who we were and why we were there. If they agreed to particpate, we handed them a form to fill out; at my site, we had forms in English, Urdu, Bengali, and Mandarin. 50% participation was pretty standard.

The agency sponsoring exit-pollsters does have to get approval from the Board of Elections, which AALDEF and its coalition-partners did, and I haven’t heard anything about poll workers being unhappy about the exit-pollsters presence, especially as the latter aren’t allowed into the actual polling area.

Regarding your not having ever seen exit-polling taking place: I’ve only voted absentee, so I haven’t experienced it either. It probably depends on where you’re voting; I would assume that exit-polling is much more common (among the major media networks, for example) in swing districts where elections are actually in contention, as opposed to in good ol’ NYC.

That was hilarious. Those are the signs of assimilation .

The reason I ask is whenever I’ve voted in person (3x versus the rest absentee), I’ve never seen anyone outside (or even inside, for that matter) look like they are pollsters, etc., i.e., non-precinct volunteers.

Before the rest of them jump on this statement. Let me direct your attention to this map

I voted in NJ and wrote in for Thomas Friedman. I think he lives in NJ. Menendez was too establishment for my taste and I thought Kean was too green.

Sorry all but this is normal programming. If you don’t like it you know what you can do

Amen! I love Abhi’s political posts. In fact, I think we need more! (which kind of reiterates the point made by GK in #8)

How about an exit poll of the macacas who read SM!