General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This! This! This all day long. Without comment [View all]progree
(11,449 posts)in one state might -- just maybe might -- apply to other similar states too.
And the "determined margins of error" referred to in #81 is bullshit too -- those margins of sampling error percentages assume a perfectly random sample, and that the only limitation of the poll is that the sample size is small. Those error percentages do not include the many other kinds of errors like people not answering their phones to unknown numbers (more so in some demgraphics than others), less civically engaged people (e.g. Trumpistas and Jeepers) less likely to accept a request for a polling inteview or to complete one, the cell phone vs. landline problems, and the list goes on. And reading about all the ways they adjust the polls to get the right mix of demographics is like watching sausage being made. (I had to laugh when somebody earlier in the thread said they have ways of adjusting for people lying.)