General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is something we all know, but maybe a reminder is in order.
If you have enough money, you can buy a poll to "support" anything you want to promote. Period.
And, some who breathlessly post "OMG!-style" poll results are often the equivalents of trolls. I am not talking about "X takes the lead in Blank state!". I am talking about "Y is done for! X leads him/her by 20 points!"
Keep your heads. Trust your common sense. Ask "Who says?" often.
leftieNanner
(15,084 posts)This is why I ignore all poll related posts.
woodsprite
(11,913 posts)Watchfoxheadexplodes
(3,496 posts)Do I like and support a candidate and policy I believe in.
Do I believe in my heart my supported candidate can be elected.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)And experience says,it is all about the Q&A and the structure of those questions and is it open ended answers or multiple Guess answers. In recent years,the outcome is easily predicted by the later.
davsand
(13,421 posts)I'm not slamming on polling done by indy polling groups, but I have seen any number of polls over the years that campaigns commission, and they frequently are biased in how questions are worded. The poll is structured to get a specific result. Sometimes they are "push polls" which are CLEARLY carrying a bias, but sometimes they are just (IMO) poorly written.
ANY poll that I see, I start by looking at the sample and the Margin of Error. Sometimes, it's pretty useless because there's just not much confidence in the data presented. Similarly, I am incredibly distrustful of the actual methodology used to collect the data. There is an increasing population of people who do not maintain a landline, and usually, those with a landline are older people. I know I sound biased, but here in the midwest, the conservative vote typically skews to the older population. That makes a huge difference in the outcomes.
YMMV.
Laura