Brittany Bertram                                                                                                             Exit Poll Assignment

 

    The exit polling assignment was something I hadn’t been looking forward to. I kept imagining the people who have approached me in the past, only to have me walk away annoyed that they were taking up my time. My partner was Kelsie Gudgeon. We decided I would drive and Kelsie provided the Map Quested directions. Map Quest failed us, however, and we passed the voting place up. It wasn’t until we made our way back around that I spotted a sign that said “vote here”. Upon first arriving at the City Center (which looked like an attachment to the police station), I wasn’t sure we were in the right place. There didn’t seem to be many people and I had been picturing there to be a decent crowd entering and exiting the polling place. Kelsie and I took our stance on the outside of the building, being careful to stay a distance from the doors. We nervously began to recite the script as people were walking from the door. To my surprise, the first couple of people had no problem participating in the poll. A few people even asked some questions about the poll and seemed generally interested in the fact that we were taking it for a college math class. After a few people passed an official looking lady came out and asked us what we were doing. We politely explained that we were taking a poll and it was for our college math class. We pointed out that it was completely confidential and that we were not asking anyone on the way in, only the voters who were on their way out. She looked at us suspiciously and said she would have to check with some council to see if we were allowed to be doing this. I was a little worried at this point that we must have been doing something wrong and that we were going to get in trouble. A few minutes later the lady returned and told us we could do it as long as it was only the voters exiting. So, the polling continued. There were a few people that left in a hurry and we did not have a chance to ask them to take our poll, but besides those few, no one had any problem participating. We had about 24 polls in our box when a second lady from inside the building approached us. She also asked what we were doing and looked at us like we were delinquents. Again, we explained what the poll was all about and that we were strictly only asking the voters as they were leaving. She asked us who was going to be reading the results and we told her our professor would be. This lady also told us it was fine, although she did not seem very happy we were there. We quickly finished up with the final 6 polls and high-tailed it out of there. Overall, the experience was pretty positive. It was definitely interesting to see how the exit polling works and I liked that everyone was compliant. The only negative part was when the ladies came out to question us. I felt they were a bit rude and I am not sure why it was important as to who would be reading the results. We were following the rules and we weren’t being disruptive. It is my right as an American citizen to take the poll, no matter who would be reading it.

 

Rand Paul: 19 Jack Conway: 11

30 people approached

Start time: 1:36 End time: 2: 54