In a telephone interview I had with long-time VNS communications director, Lee C. Sharpio, she agreed to the 1964 date. But that's about all she would reveal. There is no transparency to VNS. Shapiro will not tell you how big their budget is, nor who hires the 46,000 people she claims they use on election night to collect exit polling data, nor will she give you any proof that these 46,000 employees exist...no phone logs, no emails lists, no documents to prove that they do what they say they do. Shapiro would not let me talk to any employee of VNS's regular staff of 30. She says that VNS will not let anyone witness their operations on election night nor would she disclose its location. VNS has no website and a very uninformative brochure.

Undeterred, I placed a direct call to VNS's current executive director, Ted Savaglio. I left a message, but he hasn't returned my call.

Bill Headline was VNS's executive director during the notorious 2000 Bush - Gore presidential election. According to information on a University of Miami webpage, Headline started his career as an Air Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy from 1955 to 1957. Seven years later, in 1964, he was hired at CBS where "as a member of Louis Harris and Associates, he directed field research and vote collection activities for CBS coverage of the 1964 Presidential elections." From there his career skyrocketed to Senior Vice President of CBS News, CNN Vice President, and past President of the Radio/Television Correspondents' Association.