Political Polling Question (not political)

musicprnt
Tue, 02 Feb 2016 18:12:36 +0000

Some polls are more accurate than others, the science behind the polling itself is pretty accurate. The real issue these days is actually getting people to respond to polls, in the days of landlines and before most people had things like caller id and voicemail, it was a lot easier to get people to respond. I don’t think how they poll has quite caught up to the new reality, and it is why some polls are hard to judge.

Too, there also is a bias in polling, in that often those most willing to answer a poll are those most hardened in their views. So as a hypothetical example, polls might show that candidate X is the one most people will vote for, when in reality it could be that people who support candidate X are more likely to want to take a poll, whereas someone whose opinions are not so informed, where they aren’t as politically motivated, may likely say no.