I was talking about polls in another discussion
By estherlou
@estherlou (5015)
United States
October 21, 2008 10:38am CST
I was talking about how crazy they were. We take what they say as gospel and each poll talks to about 1000-1500 people! How can they even be accurate? Then I saw this list of political polls and how many people they contact. It was very interesting.
..The George Washington University Battleground poll of 1,000 likely voters
..The Gallup daily presidential tracking poll of 2,774 registered voters
..The Hotline /Diageo tracking poll of 789 likely voters
..A CNN /Opinion Research poll of 1058 likely voters
..The IBD /TIPP daily presidential tracking poll of 1,086 likely voters
..The C-Span/Zogby daily presidential tracking poll of 1,214 likely voters
..The ABC News /Washington Post daily presidential tracking poll of 1,336 likely voters
And there are a ton of other polls out there. I just don't know how they think this is an accurate cross reference of our country. I never get called!
2 people like this
8 responses
@Dragonofgold (509)
• Canada
21 Oct 08
well, I have had several of them call me, and I must say, once they have you one their list of responders, they call you time and again. I also wonder sometimes if they sell their copies of their list to other poll takesr. Do you really want to take the 30 minutes to ask all the questions they ask? They ask lots of questions, and then they make like 6 different poll reports from the answers.
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Wow...someone who actually has been in a poll. Interesting. Yes, I guess the time involved might turn me off...depends if it's suppertime, or I just got home from work etc. Thanks..
1 person likes this
@creematee (2810)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Hi Esther,
Are you registered with a party? I have found that since I've picked a party, the calls are non-stop! I will admit, they aren't as bad this year as they have been in previous elections, but the "poll calling" gets quite annoying--almost to the point I don't even want to vote! (that's usually my response, too.)
So, if other Poll takers feel the way I do, they can't at all be accurate. My guess the pollsters just question people until they get the result they would like... Obama in the lead this week, McCain last week.
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Hmmm...I'm a registered voter, and come to think of it, I have gotten some of those automated calls to vote for so and so for the smaller elections. I just can't remember anything else.
@kykidd (6812)
• United States
21 Oct 08
My question is, are all of those "likely" voters from different age groups, and do they live in different areas. I know in the state of Indiana, people in the North Central part of the state think totally different from the people in Central Indiana.
Someone asks me one time why we have so many Senators and State Representatives. This is exactly why. People in different regions think differently. The farmers definitely think different than the big city business men.
I don't think that polls are very accurate either. Thanks for sharing these numbers with us, it has been very informative.
I hope you have a great day!
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
21 Oct 08
You made the perfect point! How "diverse" are the people they call? Are they old and young, white and not, upper class and middle class, small town and big city? Lots of differences there in the way peopl think.
1 person likes this
@fifileigh (3615)
• United States
22 Oct 08
i have gotten called before, and i did it for the hell of it. it was tiring, and most of the time i had to tell the idiot to repeat herself because she would say it too fast and i couldnt understand what the hell she was asking me. so she made the poll take longer than it should have by not speaking clearly the first time.
@fifileigh (3615)
• United States
22 Oct 08
i never take these polls seriously. they are all crap. i did an odd job at the Gallop poll once. working there was garbage. it was a joke.
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
21 Oct 08
I don't get called either. But I can say cause I knew people in college who studied statistics. They told me how by taking a small number of people they can get a statistical view of what a larger group would say. I always said that you can't tell what a whole country is going to say by interviewing a small group. But they told me that it is some kind of math formula they use. It makes no sense to me, but more often than not the statistics are right.
