Should polling be illegal? What do you think?

[sarahdemva]

I think maybe it should be illegal. it can cause one side to be dispirited. it also takes alot of the fun out of an election and it can cause alot of stress.
another thing, in states like california where democrats know they will win big statewide will knowing that keep some democrats at home and causing some democratic house challengers to lose? I think we would be better off without polling.

[Eric J in MN]

1. I want to know what's going on.

If people decide to stay home because they feel certain about the election outcome, that is unfortunate, but it's also their decision.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. You want to make gathering information illegal?

[Catch22Dem]

3. Ugh, sometimes I cringe when I read this stuff knowing others will read it too

No, asking people what they think should not be made illegal.

[sarahdemva]

6. I think voter turnout would be much higher

if they had no idea who was going to win in advance.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. People who don't vote based on their notion of who will win in advance deserve the representation

of W.

As limiting as they are, having polls in the mix is better than relying solely on the media talking heads or the stack of election flyers that appear in mailboxes.

[kestrel91316]

26. Perhaps. But maybe people who would decline to vote based on

WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK deserve to sacrifice their voice by not having a vote recorded.

I vote because I want my voice heard, not because of the yapping of oddsmakers.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Teh STUPID!! It BURNS!!!!

[knowledgeispwr]

15. ROFL

:rofl: I can't breathe! LOL

[Robb]

5. Welcome to DU. /nt

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

7. Oh God.

:eyes:

[Sodan]

8. Exit polling shouldn't be allowed.

[sarahdemva]

11. thats a good point

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. I don't think we should actually count the votes, either.

Just tell us who won.

and yeah, this is :sarcasm:

[sarahdemva]

18. use NC as an example

no one is sure there who will win, thus we are seeing incredibly high early turnout. i think that would occur everywhere if no one knew who was winning. plus, i think the more people who turn out, the better our chances are.

[knowledgeispwr]

20. High (Early Vote) Turn-out in NC...

is due to excitement about Barack Obama and the well-functioning GOTV effort of his campaign and volunteers.

[sarahdemva]

23. its a great sign!!

[avaistheone1]

17. Duh! Exit polling is critically important...

In an environment with no meaningful oversight and no paper trail, vote tampering can occur virtually undetected. As M.K. Dooner, founder of Florida-based Deep Sky Technologies and an expert on the technical aspects of electronic voting puts the point: "There are virtually no limits to the way votes can be distributed... Programmers can write code that is self-erasing and redistributes votes to conform to whatever outside interests are operative, and without any kind of traceability." <12> Dooner's reflections are reinforced by a Johns Hopkins University study in which researchers note: "Software flaws in a leading US electronic voting system could be used to subvert the outcome of an election." <13>
This is why the Berkeley study is so important and why exit polls matter. Without the data provided by these types of empirical studies, there is no way to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of voting machines.

In the weeks following the presidential election, pundits used the official results to challenge the accuracy of the exit poll outcomes, but in light of the historical accuracy of exit polls and the scientific legitimacy of the Berkeley study, one can with equal justification use the information to cast doubt on the accuracy of the machines.

The most reasonable conclusion to draw from the evidence is that the election results are skewed, and that there is a very real possibility that widespread election fraud took place during this year's presidential election. Such reflections bring us to the most nefarious aspect of the election picture, namely, the connection between electronic voting, corporate interest, and the Republican Party.

http://blog.democrats.com/node/1600/print

[cali]

9. I'll tell you what I think: I think you should fucking educate yourself.

read the Constitution. You couldn't possibly outlaw polling.

[avaistheone1]

21. Damn it... And thank you.

The ignorance of our Constitution and the election fraud that occurred in our last two presidential elections is very troubling and appalling.

[suston96]

10. No. It should be the law and it should be organized so as to provide validation....

...of the actual election.

In other democracies, pre-election and exit polling have caused the voters to rebel and demand and actually get new elections when the pre-election and exit polling strongly suggested election tampering. The "Orange Revolution".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution

[Binka]

12. Do Your Parents Know You Are Playing On Their Computer?

You are really off the reservation sweetheart. I am trying to be nice here but you are a few crayons short of the full color box.

[Upton]

13. Is this a joke?

[doublethink]

19. Go away. n.t.

[RoadRage]

22. How in the world would either campaign know ANYTHING without polling?

How would they know if ads were effective or not? How would they know if they should spend more or less time in one state or another?

Making polling illegal is idiotic.. and pretty unenforcable.

[JohnMcCant2008]

24. Illegal to ask voters a question? slippery slope - first amendment and all......

[kestrel91316]

25. Free speech. First Amendment. Polling CANNOT be made "illegal".

And only fascists would want to try, IMHO, since they prefer everyone be kept ignorant.

[vanderBeth]

27. OMGWTF!?

:o x(

[Binka]

28. The OP Has Some Issues

Love your sig pix BTW! :hi:

[Foolacious]

29. NO!

Polling is the only evidence we have in the case of election fraud. And the only protection, as well. Exit polling is especially valuable. You can bet that, if the general public didn't know that Obama had an 8-point lead, the Republican party would be all set to steal another election. With polling, such attempts become much more difficult.