Later, the poll results were adjusted for irony

Looking round CNN's site for some of the other results from yesterday's elections in the US, I found the exit poll data from the Illinois Senate race which may be of use to future pollsters in discovering just how many voters are either rather confused or just flat out taking the piss when interviewed by pollsters.

This was perhaps the biggest win in a contested statewide election last night with Democrat Barack Obama (who I believe one is now officially obliged to refer to at all times as either 'the rising star of the Democratic Party' or 'potentially the first black US President') beating Republican Alan Keyes by 70% to 27%. Given that this was a Democrat gain, that's a pretty big win.

However, the important figures come when you look down at the 'vote by party ID' and 'vote by ideology' figures where 5% of Democrats (40% of the sample) and 8% of liberals (23% of the sample) say they voted for Keyes. In both cases that means that comes out to approximately 2% of the total sample. Coincidence? I think not.