how do they poll people with no landline phones (cell phones only).

[BklynChick]

most young people, those under 30, seem to use cell phones only. just wondering how that gets factored in

[Zachstar]

1. Last time I checked you can call a cell phone.

[BklynChick]

3. yea but the numbers aren't listed

[lapfog_1]

4. But they don't.

Especially if you put your cell on a do not call list (as a lot of us do/did).

[backscatter712]

6. Telemarketing and surveying call centers cannot legally call cell phones.

That's federal law, because cell phone users get charged airtime just for receiving the call.

There's a lot of other rules that telemarketers and phone pollsters are subjected to, regarding things like do-not-call lists and hours when they're allowed to call.

[Zachstar]

7. I stand corrected.

[rinsd]

10. You were given incorrect info

Telemarketers using auto-dialers are not allowed to call cell phones but survey companies can.

Here's a paper by Pew Research dealing with cell phones

http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/514.pdf

[rinsd]

8. That is not entirely true

"FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent."

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=276

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/515/polling-cell-only-problem

[backscatter712]

12. Read the articles.

One of them mentioned that call centers cannot use automatic dialing equipment to call cell phones - that's FCC regulation.

I used to work in a call center, and those businesses are not about to sacrifice their war dialers - that'll slow down their call rate, probably cut it in half. And these surveys are usually billed by the call, so anything that slows the agents down is gonna cause the management to freak out. On top of that, the article mentions that surveyors that call cell phone users will offer them a little bit of money to pay for the airtime used.

In short, any call center that the polling companies contract will charge a lot more money to do a survey that includes cell phones, and that means that cell phone users will be underrepresented, or non-represented in the surveys.

And there are definite demographic differences in households that do not have a land-line, and those will affect the results.

[tekisui]

2. It doesn't get factored in.

This is one reason Obama has usually out-performed the polls.

[BklynChick]

5. that's what I was thinking too

[rinsd]

9. Pew Research has done some work on this

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=276

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/515/polling-cell-only-problem

http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/514.pdf

[newfie11]

11. My husband and I only have cell phones.

No one has ever called us but then no one called us on any elections and we did have a land line then.

[ClayZ]

13. Three of our four grown kids use only cell phones.

As do most of their friends. Looks like lots of younger people are not getting polled!

[Tresalisa]

14. It's not only just young people.

I haven't had a land line for about 5 years, cellphone only, and I'm sliding into 60 years. I am also on a do-not-call list.

As a poster said upthread, though, even when I had a land line I was never polled. :shrug:

[kid a]

15. 4 cell phone fam - no land line

[quakerboy]

16. They by and large don't