OT-Who responds to political polls?

[Ken Robb]

I get so many calls these days from pollsters that I let the answering machine screen all our calls.

One of the fundamentals of democracy is a secret ballot. Why should I disclose my voting plans to a stranger on the phone?

Assuming that I am not the only one feeling/acting this way I wonder about the type of person who will respond vs. those who will not. Heck, I wonder if most responders tell the truth.

What effect on poll results do the relative percentages of folks leaning one way or the other who do or don't respond? I won't say that one attitude is smarter than the other but I will say that the older and more experienced I get the more reasons I can see for saying "don't bother me" to pollsters.

[gdw]

Who responds.... only people with landlines.

[ptourkin]

Not exactly the answer to your question, but a good explanation of what 538 is doing to use polls combined with other data to create statistical models:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-users-guide-to-fivethirtyeights-2016-general-election-forecast/

[eddief]

only one guy for me.

[franswa]

Wait, is this an online political poll? Not sure I should answer it..

[kramnnim]

I answer them. I don't always give them accurate information, though... :O

[Mikej]

Yeaah, with our current two candidates, how can you not lie...

[gasman]

Careful.... Let's stay out of politics even though I know it's on our minds with the constant news barrage.

To answer the OPs question. I haven't had a polling call since we dropped our landline.

[cmbicycles]

I have always a land line, and haven't received a polling call in years. Maybe it helps that I seem to move every few years... also my rationale for not being called for jury duty. Both of which will now happen since I opened my mouth. :p

When I did get calls years ago, I would always tell them I planned to vote for the candidate who called me the least.

[bobdenver1961]

I got a call on my cellphone a couple of weeks ago. I reluctantly said I would participate. I thought it would be a couple of questions.......

It started going on and on and on. I gave up. It was a political poll.

[Bostic]

How is it that I never get these types of calls, even when I did have a land line? Do they avoid specific area codes? My mobile phone that doesn't have it's number published anywhere gets almost a dozen calls daily from robo-callers. It's infuriating. :crap:

[eddief]

although Ken Robb is not.

[zap]

quiet in Merryland.

[ptourkin]

although Ken Robb is not.

A rare super competitive congressional district though. Issa is in trouble from a previously unknown challenger.

[Cicli]

I got one. Told them who I was voting for and because I am in chicago area I will vote early and often.

[eddief]

:) or is he on the side of cyclists against?

A rare super competitive congressional district though. Issa is in trouble from a previously unknown challenger.

[oldpotatoe]

Who responds.... only people with landlines.

Yup, never been called. Plus only one poll really matters, the one on November 8th..the rest is the stuff of M(and not so main) Stream Media.

[berserk87]

This is on topic:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pollsters-scramble-as-fewer-people-take-their-phone-calls/ar-AAjtw8N?li=BBnb7Kz

Apparently fewer people are digging the political phone polling.

[azrider]

Not necessarily 'poll' per-se but i did get an SMS text from local democrat person/committee, reminding me to register/vote.

lets just say I don't think she'll be texting me again ;):D:p

[makoti]

Used to get them all the time. I was happy to answer them. It stopped when I started to ask who was paying for the polling before we started.
On the topic of getting called by candidates... An election or two ago, I was getting calls from this one guy every single day for weeks leading up to the election. Drove me nuts. Finally, the day of the election, I get a call from him telling me I had to get out and vote, because he was "behind in Annandale", a town near me. This was at 830am. I go to vote, and Lo! who is there but this clown. I walked up, shook his hand & told him I'll be voting for his opponent. Why? Because he called me over & over & over, including this morning. No, he said, you must be mistaken. We haven't made any calls today. Really, I said? Then you might want to know that you're behind in Annandale. His response? "That went out already?" Nitwit.

[ptourkin]

If there was ever going to be a national campaign where one candidate's supporters were over represented by people who still have a land line, we're looking at it now. I'm sure they are correcting for that.

[Mark McM]

One of the fundamentals of democracy is a secret ballot. Why should I disclose my voting plans to a stranger on the phone?

When did a secret ballot become fundamental to democracy?

There's no constitutional right to it.

One of the standard examples of "American Democracy In Action" is the Town Meeting form of government that many small towns still use. At town meeting, votes are decided by a show of hands - everybody gets to see how everyone voted.

[gdw]

You folks are fortunate if you only get phone calls. We have an obnoxious neighbor that goes door to door to make sure that we vote for the people and issues she supports. Whether she is acting on her own or is a volunteer for her party is unknown. She is not welcome on our property and knows it.

[OtayBW]

When did a secret ballot become fundamental to democracy?

There's no constitutional right to it.

One of the standard examples of "American Democracy In Action" is the Town Meeting form of government that many small towns still use. At town meeting, votes are decided by a show of hands - everybody gets to see how everyone voted.OK - let's call it a tradition then. We vote for national/regional elections by secret ballot. It works and it gives people the opportunity to vote their conscience rather than bowing to peer pressure. Wow - you might even say that that concept is fundamental to our democracy. Go figure....

[Mark McM]

OK - let's call it a tradition then. We vote for national/regional elections by secret ballot. It works and it gives people the opportunity to vote their conscience rather than bowing to peer pressure. Wow - you might even say that that concept is fundamental to our democracy. Go figure....

Well, except the idea of the US government being a democracy is a myth we like to tell ourselves. In fact, it never has been a democracy, and that's exactly the way the Founding Fathers set it up. (And in reality, I don't know how a democracy of 350,000,000 people would even work.)

[fuzzalow]

One of the standard examples of "American Democracy In Action" is the Town Meeting form of government that many small towns still use. At town meeting, votes are decided by a show of hands - everybody gets to see how everyone voted.

Why would anybody give a hoot about how his/her neighbor voted? Whatever the professed reason somebody might wanna snow me with, it can't be good.

A nation that feels more like high school, everyday.

P.S. I live in less than a mile from that tower on Fifth built on the old Bonwit Teller site in a blue state. My voting district is the only one in all of NY State won by Kasich in the primary.

Nobody calling anybody up in my voting district to Poll. But in fairness, modern polling is very accurate and scientific and the polling numbers that are aggregates calculated from legitimate polls are pretty accurate too.

[OtayBW]

Well, except the idea of the US government being a democracy is a myth we like to tell ourselves. In fact, it never has been a democracy, and that's exactly the way the Founding Fathers set it up. (And in reality, I don't know how a democracy of 350,000,000 people would even work.)I think that you just - to use the parlance of all these political surrogates - PIVOTED! :rolleyes:

[Mark McM]

Why would anybody give a hoot about how his/her neighbor voted? Whatever the professed reason somebody might wanna snow me with, it can't be good.

It's not about seeing how your individual neighbors voted - its about trusting the vote count. All issues are presented directly to the people and all votes are taken in public, so there is no question about the will of the people.

There's a lot to be said about a secret ballot system. But one of the necessary principals is that have to trust that the ballots can't be manipulated. (No, I'm not a conspiracist - I believe that most voting systems are fair. But the reality is that sometimes they are manipulated.)

[bitt3n]

Why would anybody give a hoot about how his/her neighbor voted?

What if I paid good money for him to vote a certain way? I'd certainly want to know if the snake stiffed me.

[fuzzalow]

It's not about seeing how your individual neighbors voted - its about trusting the vote count. All issues are presented directly to the people and all votes are taken in public, so there is no question about the will of the people.

There's a lot to be said about a secret ballot system. But one of the necessary principals is that have to trust that the ballots can't be manipulated. (No, I'm not a conspiracist - I believe that most voting systems are fair. But the reality is that sometimes they are manipulated.)

I don't disagree with you about vote counts but I differ with you in the matter of degree in which it poses a danger to democracy. Voter count issues and voter fraud issues, to me, are sublimated racist and voter suppression strategies. And ultimately the amount of fraud has never been proven to be significant in number & scale to swing an election. Heck, Joseph P. Kennedy worked with the Daley political machine that owned the state of Illinois to help JFK's election effort - but that was an entirely different time and under different workings in an America long past.

Meaning it is not vote count on the small insignificant scale of town & county voting, even if monitored and counted by a public show of hands that undermines democracy. Not a spurious claim of voter fraud. It is the use of electronic voting booths and tabulation that causes me the greatest worry. I hope the greatest of integrity is used to safeguard the accuracy and the legitimacy of the vote. But I know computers and digital infrastructure is breakable at best and porous at worst. Election fraud on that scale is doable and the method and the code to do it would be undetectable. Why, as a citizen, would I have trust and faith in our democracy based on the digital workings of the Diebold Corporatoin?

[FlashUNC]

It's not about seeing how your individual neighbors voted - its about trusting the vote count. All issues are presented directly to the people and all votes are taken in public, so there is no question about the will of the people.

There's a lot to be said about a secret ballot system. But one of the necessary principals is that have to trust that the ballots can't be manipulated. (No, I'm not a conspiracist - I believe that most voting systems are fair. But the reality is that sometimes they are manipulated.)

Secret ballots help reduce voter intimidation and potential vote buying. It was a huge issue in this country before secret ballots were adopted in the 1880s.

The reality is nationwide voter fraud to rig a national election would be exceedingly hard to produce. We conduct thousands of local elections to choose our representatives, we just happen to do it all basically on the same day. There is no national election.

There's been no clear evidence of any national election that's ever been manipulated. Any suggestions otherwise are simply fear mongering for fear mongerings sake.

[unterhausen]

I have never gotten polled except for push polls -- "have you heard that candidate A likes to bite the heads off of small children?" I got one from an organization supporting Toomey, because they ask me if they had heard one of the lies that he spreads about his opponent.

[Bruce K]

Nomoobo keeps most pollsters away from our landline

If one should get through and I mistskenly answer it then they get all sorts of bizarre answers

BK

[sasteelman]

Have both cell and landline. Don't respond to pollsters unless it's something of extreme importance to me. Otherwise I tell them I don't want to participate

[Mark McM]

I don't disagree with you about vote counts but I differ with you in the matter of degree in which it poses a danger to democracy. Voter count issues and voter fraud issues, to me, are sublimated racist and voter suppression strategies. And ultimately the amount of fraud has never been proven to be significant in number & scale to swing an election. Heck, Joseph P. Kennedy worked with the Daley political machine that owned the state of Illinois to help JFK's election effort - but that was an entirely different time and under different workings in an America long past.

I agree with this. Trying to rig a large election by employing fraud voters would be highly inefficient and ineffective. Fraud voting is largely a bogey man for conspiracy theorists, and does not pose a great threat to voting integrity.

It is the use of electronic voting booths and tabulation that causes me the greatest worry. I hope the greatest of integrity is used to safeguard the accuracy and the legitimacy of the vote. But I know computers and digital infrastructure is breakable at best and porous at worst. Election fraud on that scale is doable and the method and the code to do it would be undetectable. Why, as a citizen, would I have trust and faith in our democracy based on the digital workings of the Diebold Corporatoin?

This I think is the bigger concern. I would be surprised if it hasn't at least already been tried, if not succeeded.

[OtayBW]

For me, it is not so much the actual threat to the integrity and legitimacy of the process that is the big concern (though that is still noteworthy), but rather the perception of the loss of election integrity - right or wrong - and the possible fringe (?) response as emotions are currently being whipped up in the political arena....:(

[chiasticon]

I live in a very important swing state. there is no relief from the pollsters. :crap:

[soulspinner]

Secret ballots help reduce voter intimidation and potential vote buying. It was a huge issue in this country before secret ballots were adopted in the 1880s.

The reality is nationwide voter fraud to rig a national election would be exceedingly hard to produce. We conduct thousands of local elections to choose our representatives, we just happen to do it all basically on the same day. There is no national election.

There's been no clear evidence of any national election that's ever been manipulated. Any suggestions otherwise are simply fear mongering for fear mongerings sake.

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