How about an informal DU national poll?

[murray hill farm]

I do not believe the poll numbers..just do not believe them. What if even 20 DU members from different parts of the country each made 25 random telephone calls from their particular area of the us..and just asked the question..."If the election were held today, who would you vote for president and vice president?"..perhaps..even if it were not a scientific poll, at least we would have some idea if these polls are even somewhat accurate...and maybe we would discover that it just doesnt jive at all with is being presented by the various pollsters.

[Goldmund]

1. If you have a list of Registered Voters...

...you'd have a much higher accuracy rate than if you simply called random numbers (being that a half of the country doesn't vote at all). I believe that's public record -- does anybody know how to get it?

[mark414]

2. or

we could get one or two people from every state, let's say 2 from each state make 25 calls each.

that way we could have statewide AND national polls

granted, it WOULD be very informal

[murray hill farm]

3. ask the question..

are you a registered voter when you make the call..simple enough..and control it somewhat by, for example..each person would call 25 people that are the first 25 names starting with a specific letter (say maybe M) that is listed in their area phone book...it wouldnt be that difficult to do...and we might be very suprised at what we discover.

[Kierkegaard]

4. DU should just post a poll to the home page,

Imagine it:
Kerry 100%
Bush: 0%

Sample size: 50,000

[murray hill farm]

5. Lets do it!!!

How would i get this going? Any students here majoring in Sociology or political science or statistics..just about anything..ha! This would be a wonderful project or disertation topic..and would be something a group such as ourselves could do to check on the accuracy of the poll numbers that are being presented to us by the media.

[Kierkegaard]

6. Well, I think it should be done, but...

I was being ever so slightly sarcastic. We could never get results that could be taken seriously, but it would parody the news rags that collect their own data and then regurgitate it as if it meant anything at all. THAT was my real motive: a bat to clobber the Time/Newsweek garbage that is purposely being wielded as a weapon against Kerry.

C'mon guys. Post a front page poll for us to play with!!!

[murray hill farm]

7. might start a trend

might make people who hear about it..say to themselves.."wait just a minute here" maybe those national polls are not accurate..may just reinforce what we are being told...but maybe not..and that would be interesting.

[Kierkegaard]

8. Exaclty to the point

Show the other extreme and make some people aware that polls are NOT the end-all indicator of what is happening in the Presidential race. Challenge the media's credibility, or lack thereof.

[murray hill farm]

9. Yes!!!

And who better to make that challenge than DU!!

[Kierkegaard]

11. What do we do to get the poll posted?

Who da man???

My suggestion:

If the election were not postponed by a terrorist threat, for whom would you vote?

John Kerry

John Kerry

John Kerry

[seabeyond]

10. who knows on polls. location

if you called 300 dems in south, (texas) and then the proper amount of repugs and independents just in certain areas then that would shift the numbers. so along with telling us how many of each party was called, wouldnt we need to know where the calls were made to. and is that info available. or do they just always, i mean always keep it balanced going across the nation

[murray hill farm]

12. it would be an informal poll

CNN does them all of the time..call in and punch yes or no to questions..we would not be doing a scientific poll here...just an informal one to check on the accuracy of the poll numbers that we are being given from the so called scientific polls...to keep it honest..would need to pick a letter..and everyone call the first 25 people whose last names begin with that letter. We would not be claiming a scientific poll..just an informal one to see for ourselves if the poll numbers we are being given by the media are even remotely close to what is the actual reality out there.