In 1964, the Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and United Press International formed a consortium called the News Election Service (NES) that was designed to collect one set of election returns for the entire United States. A study was made of NES operations during the presidential election year of 1980 to determine (1) the nature of the structural organization of NES and how that organization enhanced or inhibited information dissemination, (2) how election returns were disseminated on election night, (3) how accurate those returns were, and (4) the potential impact of NES on the electoral process. Data were gathered through participant observation of NES activities and through interviews with NES executives and managers in three different locations. The resulting data revealed that NES is a complex organization that seems to be essential to election returns dissemination. While the television networks and wire services that comprise NES all use its service, they each rely on other means of making early projections of winners in specific races. Although NES strives for complete accuracy, its figures are not always the same as those released by official agencies--largely due to the large number of possible error sources. The NES system raises questions pertaining to influences on reporting that the elimination of competition in data collection has caused. (FL)