538: Calm Down About Those Virginia Polls, Folks

[ProfessorGAC]

6. I Know People Who Work At Pew

I know of nobody that would experiment and then publish the results. The experimental polling would be to refine the methodology that would then result in publishable results.

To do otherwise is statistically invalid and sloppy science.

And three of your reasons have nothing to do with polling. People polled can still have a preference and suppression might stop them from acting on that choice, but that would apply to any pollster.

They're only measuring preferences. People have preferences whether others have conspired to take away their voting rights, or not. Same with theft by voting machine. The people still had a person for whom they were going to vote. The machine stealing the vote doesn't change the preference identified in the polling. And all the instant communications stuff influences preference, but it doesn't affect the way the preference is measured.