Poll Making a Difference

[kdfrawg]

Since most polls are at least semi-scientific, and since this is a democracy, most politicians look at existing polls or commission polls of their own to take the pulse of their constituency before they submit bills or vote on bills. That would seem to make polls important, wouldn't it?

[Wilma]

Is this a trick question?  If I answer yes, then polls don't make a difference and if I answer no, polls do make a difference.

[Diane Amberg]

 Right... let's see what he does with this.

[kdfrawg]

A "Yes" is a vote in favor of polls having substantial merit in the democratic process.



I'm gong to start a poll about these darned new icons. They look like graffiti.

[Wilma]

I voted yes, they do matter.  Decisions are made on the results of polls.  I feel that most are just a nuisance but some of them do ask sensible questions.  I don't do polls that don't matter to me.

[kdfrawg]

And that's the way it should be, Wilma. Not everybody can care about everything, and certainly one person can't know enough about every issue to make a wise decision. (Well, maybe Janet. ) There's enough variety in people that all the bases get covered if all of us pay attention to what we're interested in.

[Rudy Taylor]

I love to see the polls turn out wrong, but they seldom do. Thirty years ago, I managed the congressional campaign for Bob Whittaker (an Elk County native, by the way). I was always amazed at how a professional research company could turn out numbers and reactions to issues that truly were on target.

It also depends on who takes the poll. Candidates, newspapers, TV stations aren't very scientific in their polling, thus their results often turn out wrong. That's why it's worth the money to pay an unbiased research firm that will make sample calls, or contacts, then extrapolate those samples into meaningful data for candidates to follow.

[kdfrawg]

Rudy is dead on. There are polls and there are polls. I had a couple of classes on polling techniques, and my daughter's best friend just went to work for a polling organization in Washington, DC. It's all in how you word the questions...

[Janet Harrington]

Rudy, tell us more about this Bob Whittaker.  This name does not ring a bell, but if you tell me about him, maybe it will.