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Is there a benefit to lying to pollsters?

Is there a benefit to lying to pollsters?

  • Yes. Great idea.

    Votes: 6 60.0%
  • No. How else will the campaigns, puperpacs and media know how to manipulate the public?

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Maybe/Other

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • I cannot vote because I lost my civil rights due to a minor legal issue when I was a kid.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

Smeagol

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I like personally knowing the data. I hate it that people don't vote for the candidate they like best because they think he/she doesn't have a chance. I like being able to predict the election winner in advance. I hate that people decide not to vote because of polling data they realize their candidate won't win anyway. I really hate election day exit polling that has the effect of lowering voter turnout and created the 2000 election fiasco when the network falsely reported Gore won Florida and people in the conservative central time zone western panhandle got out of line, went home and didn't vote.

I plan to tell bold-face lies to any pollster who surveys me this year. I've LOVE the news channels to get it wrong in the election night coverage. Good idea? Bad idea? Will you join me?
 
I don't respond to polls.

I declare my position by voting.

I am personally annoyed by them so I ignore them.
 
Sure, the satisfaction of throwing a wrench into the works.
 
I haven't lied to a Pole since I spend a lost weekend with one. She was beautiful and it was worth it.
 
I haven't lied to a Pole since I spend a lost weekend with one. She was beautiful and it was worth it.

You didn't call her in the morning? Was she named "gallup"?
 
You didn't call her in the morning? Was she named "gallup"?

LOL, I think it was. It's been years. I did hear from her once. She told me that she had gotten married to an American whose last name was Vaulter.
 
LOL, I think it was. It's been years. I did hear from her once. She told me that she had gotten married to an American whose last name was Vaulter.

well I hope your Pole Liked his pole. I won't answer any pollster asking me about firearms directly or even honestly in some cases because I don't know who they really are. I think I did once answer someone at a polling place after I had voted-I told them I voted for GHWB that year (88). They asked me why and I said I avoid Greeks wearing lifts
 
well I hope your Pole Liked his pole. I won't answer any pollster asking me about firearms directly or even honestly in some cases because I don't know who they really are. I think I did once answer someone at a polling place after I had voted-I told them I voted for GHWB that year (88). They asked me why and I said I avoid Greeks wearing lifts

Good answer, but I think Dukakis is a big Trump fan. Being Greek he has a thing for assholes.
 
Good answer, but I think Dukakis is a big Trump fan. Being Greek he has a thing for assholes.

LOL, are you saying he's not in the tank for Hillary?
 
I've read from numerous people (one of whom has contributed to this very thread) that Trump's poll numbers aren't higher because people lie to the pollsters because they don't want to be negatively judged for being a Trump supporter, or something equally moronic, even though polls are generally conducted over the phone by total strangers.

There's no logical reason to lie to pollsters except for trolling purposes, and the sample sizes for scientific polls are generally large enough that trolls fall well within the margin of error.
 
well I hope your Pole Liked his pole. I won't answer any pollster asking me about firearms directly or even honestly in some cases because I don't know who they really are.

Pollsters are required to give their organization and, if requested, the number for a supervisor. Best they can do. Not sure why the paranoia, but whatevs.

I think I did once answer someone at a polling place after I had voted-I told them I voted for GHWB that year (88). They asked me why and I said I avoid Greeks wearing lifts

i-see-what-you-did-there-261.jpg
 
In the UK it’s illegal for exit polling to be reported until the polls have closed, precisely to avoid the risk of them impacting (or being used to impact) voting. I was a little surprised that apparently isn’t the case in the US. With that in place they’re no worse than any other form of opinion polling.
 
In the UK it’s illegal for exit polling to be reported until the polls have closed, precisely to avoid the risk of them impacting (or being used to impact) voting. I was a little surprised that apparently isn’t the case in the US. With that in place they’re no worse than any other form of opinion polling.

The TV news channels here in the states voluntarily wait until the polls close at 7pm. In the US we have 5 time zones; Eastern, Central, Mountain, Western, Alaska/Hawaii. Several problems:

1. In 2000 the TV networks forgot the state of Florida has areas in both the Eastern and Central time zones and falsely declared Gore the winner in Florida an hour before some Floridians voted. There were reports that many heard the reports and went home without voting.

2. Under law, although the polls official close at 7pm, people who arrive at the polling place prior to that time are allowed to vote after 7pm. In 2012 there were credible allegations that the Republican party, that ironically was founded to end racially motivated injustice and were in power in the state government, deliberately took measures suppress minority voting in Florida. There was a major backlash and blacks who arrived to vote in at least one Miami polling place before 7pm, showed up in such large numbers that there was a line extending out of the building still after 11pm shown on TV news helicopters. Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan attributed the Republican loss due to a surprisingly high level of "urban voters." Its possible the line at that and possibly other polling places would have been even longer if the news networks did not report a predicted winner in Florida at +/- 7pm, which voters likely would have known about via portable radios and text alerts on their phones.

3. By declaring winners of each state based on exit polls just after the polls close at 7pm local time, often the American public knows who the winner is long before the polls close in the western states, making their votes irrelevant.
 
The TV news channels here in the states voluntarily wait until the polls close at 7pm. In the US we have 5 time zones; Eastern, Central, Mountain, Western, Alaska/Hawaii.
I didn’t think of the time zone element, though I guess it wouldn’t be impossible to prevent reporting exit polls anywhere until voted had ended everywhere.

It seems there are clearly other (more significant) issues with the electoral system over there anyway and reporting exiting polls leads to more symptomatic problems than being the root cause.

I think we have a lot more polling places than you do (queues are pretty much unheard of – half the time I see no other voters when I go in). Voting also typically runs through to 10pm here, though I think we have less postal voting and no early voting at all.
 
Yes, I've lied to them. You would too if you live in New Hampshire like I do. Think about it. I had like 13 candidates' camps polling me, plus the usual suspects (Rasmussen, Gallup, Quinnipiac, WMUR, etc. etc.).
 
No one ever asks me anything. They tend to seek the meek.

I quit lying over 20 years ago.
 
I hang up on pollsters. If I answer a serious political question with "yes", "no", or "strongly agree", I'm misrepresenting my views. Things are rarely that simple.


But what point would there be in lying to pollsters? The only way that could have a statistically significant effect is if a whole bunch of polled people coordinated their lies, but how are they going to do that? Polling is randomized in an area.
 
Consider when Ron Paul was the standard bearer for all the Paulbots. On message board after message board and sometimes in the national polls you would see huge majorities approving or supporting Paul. But when the votes came in, he never won a single primary race though he did win a few delegates in non winner takes all states. The polls were hugely skewed and it was absolutely deliberate.

This year, Donald Trump is doing considerably better than the polls said he would. Hillary Clinton is doing considerably worse than the polls said she would.

Exit polling on the other hand has been closer to the actual results. Why? Who knows.

Personally, I think polls are used to manipulate public opinion and of course that can be used unethically. I also don't think any exit polling information or election results should be announced ever until all polls have closed across the entire country.

IF I am absolutely sure who is conducting the poll I sometimes go ahead and answer their questions. And I am as truthful as possible when I do--some questions are so obviously rigged to get a particular answer I will refuse to answer those.
 
I didn’t think of the time zone element, though I guess it wouldn’t be impossible to prevent reporting exit polls anywhere until voted had ended everywhere.

It seems there are clearly other (more significant) issues with the electoral system over there anyway and reporting exiting polls leads to more symptomatic problems than being the root cause.

I think we have a lot more polling places than you do (queues are pretty much unheard of – half the time I see no other voters when I go in). Voting also typically runs through to 10pm here, though I think we have less postal voting and no early voting at all.


Yeah, the network announce a predicted winner (provided their statisticians know) as soon as the clock hits 7pm in the state where they predict the winner. If its 7pm in New York, its still 5pm in Colorado. People in Colorado as well as the rest of the country will instantly hear the news that a winner was declared in New York hours before their polls close.

You're right. We need to fix our elections in numerous areas:


  • Wealthy interest groups being able to influence election outcomes at significantly higher levels than average people. Those interest groups may be funded by corporations, which provides an indirect way for foreigners to buy American election outcomes but illegal otherwise.


  • 51 different election jurisdictions, all of which are allowed to design their own processes and procedures.


  • Concerns of voter fraud. New voter ID laws that require low income people who use public transportation, direct payroll deposit, debit cards and online banking to obtain diver's licenses in order to vote and post 9/11 the federal government superimposing a national ID card on them that makes them 2 to 3 times as expensive.


  • Some states banning people from voting for life for minor legal infractions (such as possession of marijuana.) Meanwhile, because he lived in a state with more lenient laws another guy is arrested for possession of cocaine and drunk driving. Not only is he allowed to vote, he eventually is elected President of the United States. Statistically, minority males are banned from voting for life at exponentially higher rates than any other group.

One of the best things to happen in recent years is early voting, where a couple of weeks before election day, people may vote in advance at any public library in their county. I freakin' HATED stating in line on election day and started voting by mail. However before 9/11 it was discouraged where I live and you had to "say" you'd be out of town on election day. Plus there were reports some unethical elections office workers may have been throwing absentee ballots out. They were processed out of sight of the public, in my state party affiliation must be declared and often the number of ballots counted were fewer in number that votes cast in the absentee category. Plus, if the poll worker arbitrarily decides your signature on file at the elections office looks different than the signature on your mail-in ballot, they may legally throw your ballot in the garbage.
 
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