My parents have always been news junkies - my dad was a poli-sci major and taught government in adult night school way back when (in fact, he was caught right in the middle of the Watts Riots after school one night, he escaped with the help of some students) - so I remember very vividly watching the election returns with them in the '60s and '70s, back when the elections weren't called until actual votes were freaking counted. That's when men were men and political conventions weren't just a rubber stamp, and election night dragged on into election morning before anyone was sure of anything.

So it was with no small satisfaction that I witnessed the various news agencies have to retract such minor matters as the next president of the United States back in 2000. I loved hearing all of these smug clowns have to eat their words after declaring Gore the winner (although I voted for him): "We, uh, called the presidential race prematurely it seems. Our, uh, scientific polling data somehow got defibrilated by the frazzumblork, and as a result, we, um, suck."

Last night was more like the old days sitting in front of the black-and-white, seeing that Dr. Doctor had once again been elected to the L.A. School Board:

Voter News Service, the news media consortium whose flawed data led to erroneous projections on Election Night 2000, withheld results from its national and state exit polls Tuesday because it could not guarantee their accuracy.

In addition, vote counts from VNS came in so slowly during the night that some television networks relied on a backup system provided by the Associated Press.

Without information from exit polls, in which voters are asked who they voted for as they leave polling places, television networks had to wait for votes to be counted to project winners in congressional and gubernatorial elections. Newspapers were left without one of their main sources of information on why elections go the way they do. Exit polls provide information on who voted and why voters made the choices they did. They are also used to predict winners before votes are fully counted.

Networks still projected winners before all the votes came in — and even at the moment polling places in some states closed. But they did so based on votes from key precincts chosen to reflect the makeup of the state's voters.

''It's back to the '60s, sitting in front of the television set until all the votes are counted,'' MSNBC anchor Lester Holt said as the evening's coverage got underway.

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