Research company conducts exit poll at Lincolnville
Staff writer
When Marion County residents hear or read about election results and analyses, voters in Clear Creek, Clark, and Lost Springs townships may have been factored into those reports.
Robert Konarik was present Tuesday at Lincolnville Community Center to take a survey of voters after they cast their ballots.
Konarik was working for Edison Research, a company that has been conducting exit polling since 1996.
The company would not allow this newspaper to interview Konarik, but its website states, “We task thousands of interviewers on one single day to administer and report hundreds of thousands of interviews and then deliver the data in real time. When you hear election projections, results, or analysis about who voted for whom, that information comes from Edison Research.”
The information gathered is provided to a National Election Pool consisting of ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, and the Associated Press.
The data is also provided to many international, national, and local news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and National Public Radio.
Konarik appears to be the only person working for Edison Research in Marion County. He said he found out about the job at the courthouse.
“Robert Konarik is not working for me,” county election officer Tina Spencer said. “He has my official permission to be there (at Lincolnville) on behalf of the company he is working for.”