Polls & Surveys

[Ray B]

Yesterday I had a phone call from a PR firm with questions. this one was about my opinion of the local Public Utility. In short, the PUD wants to know what the public thinks of it. why they care I do not know since their job is to provide electricity which is quantifiable and fact related as to how effective the service is.

Then I see polls quoted regarding politics. All sorts of percentages as to which candidate would get their vote and which program is most important. the numbers vary widely, which causes me to wonder. Of all the people that I am acquainted with, which considering they are from different groups (hunters, state employees, mainline church adherents, vets, etc) they all have their opinions of what they see as effective government and the opinions vary greatly from far left to far right. But one thing I notice is that the basic opinion/position never changes. How they would vote for one or the other or political party remains the same. so if all of the people that I know are firm in their choice of candidate, where are all of these folks that change their mind depending on some news story? I suspect the variance is in the poll and how the questions are phrased so that answering yes really means that you answered no.

 

[JimP]

Whenever I see the caller ID pop up that it is some kind of polling or is just a bunch of initials I just let it go to voicemail, that is on my landline.

If any call come into my cellphone that I don't recognize I will let it go to voicemail.

As for the pulling question I believe that they word the questions so that they get the results they want.

Just remember that the presidential election back in 2016 the polls told us not to even worry about voting and that Hillary would win in the biggest landslide victory ever.

I even went to bed figuring that she had won and was quite surprised the next morning when I saw what the results were.

 

[Ridge Runner]

It's about numbers and what pollsters can claim about percentages.

Say a demcommie candidate's 1st pollster group contacts 10 people: 5 state they vote republican, 3 vote democratic, and 2 vote other; the results by mainstream media is:

50% of those polled are in favor of the demcommie party
48% Republicans not happy with the way President Trump is doing his job
3+/-% margin of error

Same demcommie candidate's 2nd pollster group, has a list of containing demcommie names only to contact, pollster contacts 10 off the list, of those 10, 7 are hardline demcommie, 2 are real democrats, 1 demcommie is still pissed their candidate is out of the running, mainstream media poll results:

60% favor the demcommie candidate an increase of 10%
38% approve of President Trump is doing a good job, down by 10%
3+/- margin of error

Those 20 people polled around the coffee machine and water cooler represent the 2 billion legally registered voters and another 5 billion illegal, dead, incarcerated, underaged, and fraudulent/fictitious voters.

Get the gest of polling.

The phone call by a pollster group you received wasn't about your opinion, it was which list to put you on: call or do not call.

For any poll to be legitimate:
1. 100% of the registered legal voting populace would have to respond
2. factual numbers not percentages would have to be reported
3. mainstream media would have to report the whole story without any hype or bias.

Just my 2 pennies worth about polls and surveys.

 

[Nyati]

Well, it depends, here in Spain we have a polling company which is consistently very accurate with its predictions, others not so much.

I have to conclude they are just good professionals.

 

[tarbe]

I think there are dishonest people out there trying to use polls to influence outcomes.

Shocking...I know!

It is my day to be Captain Obvious.

 

[YancyW]

Just keep in mind, a very high percentage of all polling conducted in the US is never intended or released to the public. I have done 100s of polls, maybe more, I could probably count on my hands how many were fully released to the public.

 

[Newboomer]

Polls and surveys are worded and sent to certain people to get the reaction the pollsters want. Certain numbers of people and neighborhoods are carefully selected to reap the most favorable results. Strictly engineered and skewed.