The so-called data will not be sent to the TV networks and Associated Press until at least 4 p.m. Eastern, said Sheldon Gawiser, chairman of the polling consortium's steering committee and NBC's director of elections. The "first wave" of data that Internet bloggers posted this year, he said, was too raw to be useful to "people who don't know what they're dealing with."

USA Today recalled, "By shortly after 3 p.m. ET, some television commentators were hinting that Kerry appeared likely to win."

Too bad President Bush can't run for a third term. It would be intriguing to see how Big Media would sabotage him on yet another Election Day, after the botched exit polls of 2004 and the ludicrous attempt in 2000 to steal Florida for loser Al Gore while polling places were still open in the heavily Republican Panhandle.

Editor's note: