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Pew Research Asks: Just How Does the General Election Exit Poll Work?
The exit poll is a major operation. Edison Research expects to survey about 16,000 early and absentee voters by phone, Joe Lenski said, and another 85,000 or so voters in person. "Between exit-poll interviewers, vote-count reporters, supervisors driving around checking on sites, and the two very large phone rooms we'll be operating on Election Day to take in those results, we have close to 3,000 people working for us on Election Day," he said. It also is conducting a phone survey of early and absentee/mail voters, a process that began earlier this week. more »
The Brennan Center for Justice* Voting Issues to Watch Election Day 2016: 14 States Have Voting Restrictions for the First Time in a Presidential Election - Arizona, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin
Voter Fraud: "Rigged" is the buzzword if this election, with Donald Trump saying there is "large scale voter fraud." Every major study, investigation, and court decision has found voter fraud is vanishingly rare. See the Brennan Center’s briefing memo debunking the myth of fraud. Cuts to polling locations, confusion over new voting requirements, faulty machines, and other factors have led to long lines in North Carolina and Texas during early voting this year, and in Arizona during the primaries. In 2012, between 500,000 and 700,000 eligible voters did not cast a ballot due to excessive wait times.
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Ever Wonder Why We Change Our Clocks? The Process of Adjusting to the Disruption in Circadian Rhythms
Sometimes credited with inventing Daylight Saving Time, Benjamin Franklin — the man who is known for the saying "Early to bed and early to rise …" — did not actually suggest a change in time. Benjamin Franklin's connection to Daylight Saving Time comes from his 1784 satirical letter to the editor in the Journal de Paris in which he proposed that Parisians could save money on candles by waking up before their normal time of noon. more »
Finding a Dog at a Shelter: Berkeley Study Confirms That Identifying a Dog's Breed is Harder Than It Appears
The idea is to begin training potential adopters to think in terms of behavior and expectations of their pets, rather than a specific look. For example, an adopter might come in hoping to find a so-called Poodle or Doberman — and leave the building with an American Sofa Dog or a Sierra Stair Stepper. Whimsical, yes, but these new names will be rooted in observation, designed to conjure a distinct personality trait or two. more »
