Pollsters say: We are being unfairly attacked

[quaoar]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/politics/campaign/29poll.html

A Request to Partisans: Don't Shoot the Pollster
By JIM RUTENBERG

Published: September 29, 2004


WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - There has been no shortage of targets for partisans of all persuasions this election season. But one group has come under fire from all sides: pollsters, who in these polarized times have become the political equivalent of lawyers.

The latest attack came Tuesday from the liberal activist group MoveOn.org, which ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times criticizing the Gallup Organization for polling that showed President Bush comfortably ahead of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee. Saying that the polling is biased toward Republicans, the advertisement implies the reason is that George Gallup Jr., the son of the poll's founder, is an evangelical Christian.

< snip >

Those making the charges say they are simply trying to counter the powerful news media when they believe it is presenting inaccurate pictures of the electorate that could demoralize - or galvanize - voters.

But pollsters, many of whom see themselves as above-the-fray numbers crunchers, say the attacks are a product of intense national partisanship in the age of the Weblog and 24-hour cable news channels.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. He doth protest too loudly!

[cheshire]

2. I say stop whining or stop polling biased or not. If you can't handle it

get out.

[bagnana]

3. I don't believe that people change their party

affiliation according to who they think is "ahead." On what basis do they make that claim???

[LiberalFighter]

12. Correctamundo!!!!

You are either a Democrat or a Republican or independent!!!

Going back and forth between Democrat and Republican based on who they are currently going to vote does not make one a Democrat or Republican.

No wonder the polls are all fouled up!!

[whistle]

4. Zogby doesn't thing the polling business is all that great...

<snip>

Is the Polling Industry in a Crisis?

There is a lot of talk these days about lower polling response rates. When I started working in this profession, response rates averaged 65 percent — that is, for every three people reached on the phone, two would agree to respond to a survey. Today, average response rates are about 30 percent, and they tend to be much lower in some metropolitan areas. Some pundits are ready to declare that polls are dead because of this. That is hardly the case. Lower response rates mean that it takes longer to complete polls, but it is still possible to get good samples. Though much has been made about some polling firms — my company included — missing some major election calls, the fact is that we all generally are still able to obtain results well within the margins of sampling error. I think that having reasonable expectations for what polls can and cannot do, combined with the healthy skepticism of the consumer of political information, is the best approach to take as we all prepare for another major election year in 2004.

<link> http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/election04/polls.htm

[Hamlette]

5. waaaa

[girl gone mad]

6. Cry me a river. n/t

[Lex]

7. Here's what I think:

:nopity:

[ogradda]

8. horseshit

n/t

[whistle]

9. Jimmy Breslin wrote this column on political polling....

<snip
Making call on sham of political polling

September 16, 2004

Anybody who believes these national political polls are giving you facts is a gullible fool.

Any editors of newspapers or television news shows who use poll results as a story are beyond gullible. On behalf of the public they profess to serve, they are indolent salesmen of falsehoods.

This is because these political polls are done by telephone. Land-line telephones, as your house phone is called.

The telephone polls do not include cellular phones. There are almost 169 million cell phones being used in America today - 168,900,019 as of Sept. 15, according to the cell phone institute in Washington.



<link> http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/ny-nybres163973220sep16,0,5538561.column

[NMDemDist2]

11. i'm not sure about the source but the message is right on n/t

[AndyTiedye]

10. Gallup Polls the Diebold Republican Electing Machinez

If Boosh is trailing in all the polls by a lot and he "wins",
people will tend to suspect electoral fraud.
They have Gallup and many of the others in their pocket
to legitimize their planned theft of the election.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. .

:nopity:

[Downtown Hound]

14. Awww...poor wittle Gawwup

Stop weighing your samples towards Republicans and we'll stop criticizing you. I can accept a poll that shows my candidate behind if it's done fairly. But when you weigh your polls heavily towards one party, especially the minority party in registration, you're not polling, you're propagandizing.

[progdonkey]

15. It's not a partisan attack...

when Gallup itself can't explain its fucked-up methodology.

I mean, MoveOn says Gallup is predicting an unusually high Republican turn-out, and Gallup comes back with, "We don't predict. We give the facts. We're Gallup, trust us."