Edition: U.S. / Global

The 1988 Elections; West Still Wasn't Won When TV Named the Winner

Published: November 9, 1988

Polls were still open in the Western states last night when the television networks announced George Bush's victory, living up to the letter of a commitment they made to Congress but still stirring the ire of many politicians.

As fast as you could say instant analysis, politicians began protesting that voters in the West might stop going to the polls.

CBS News called Mr. Bush the winner at 9:17 P.M. Eastern time, followed three minutes later by ABC News. NBC News waited until 10:31 Eastern time, saying it prefered to err on the side of caution. The polls closed on the West Coast at 8 P.M. (11 Eastern time).

''I think it's wrong,'' said Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ''I think it does injury to the democratic process. I think it's selfish. I think it's very unfair for someone out in California, Washington, Montana or Nevada. And there's no need to do it.'' Effect Seen on Senate

There were heated Senate races in all four of those Western states. Mr. Kerry said some voters, hearing that the Presidential race was over, might stay away from the polls and affect the senatorial elections.

Mr. Kerry acknowledged that the networks had lived up to the letter of the commitment they made to Congress after the 1984 election, when the networks all announced President Reagan's re-election from 8:01 to 8:31 P.M. Eastern time and stirred complaints that they had discouraged voting in the West.

At Congressional hearings in 1985 the networks said they would not project the results in any state until the majority of the polls in that state were closed.

As the polls began closing in the East and South at 7 P.M., the networks sought to squeeze every ounce of drama they could out of the final moments of the Presidential race. Each offered different story lines as they slowly tallied up the results. Early Calls From Exit Polls

All three networks used basically the same system. Using surveys of voters leaving the polls, they projected the outcome and announced the result as the polls closed in each state. As the total of declared state-by-state victories added up to 270 electoral votes, each network declared Mr. Bush the winner.

The use of exit surveys is at the crux of the criticism of the networks. The networks argue that they cannot withhold news, namely the state-by-state outcome of the exit polls, once they have it.

But Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said election returns, not the exit polls, were the real news. He said voters should boycott the exit polls, thereby foiling the networks' efforts to use them to announce the outcome.

If the networks would simply wait for the actual returns, they would be unable to project the outcome before the polls were closed in the West, Mr. Gans said. Uniform Poll Closings

Senator Kerry agreed but said a more practical approach was legislation to require that polls close at the same time throughout the country. Such legislation passed the House twice since 1984 but has stalled in the Senate.

Karl Sandstrom, staff director of the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections, said he thought there would be ''many West Coast voters who are going to be upset.'' The chairman of the subcommittee is Representative Al Swift, Democrat of Washington, sponsor of the bill to require uniform poll closing times.

It was because Mr. Dukakis ran close to Mr. Bush in a number of big states, and carried several, that the networks had to wait longer than in either 1980 or 1984 to call the overall race.

The Dukakis campaign did all it could to keep hope alive around the country early yesterday evening. He did not concede defeat until after the polls had closed on the West Coast; both campaigns had promised not to.

Mr. Dukakis himself did a series of interviews by satellite from Boston for early evening news shows in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Montana. ''There's a story out there,'' his spokesman, Leslie Dach, said about 6 P.M. Eastern time. ''We're on the verge of an historic upset.''