Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How The Bradley Effect Blew Up The New Hampshire Polling
Townhall.com ^ | January 11, 2008 | John Hawkins

Posted on 01/11/2008 3:56:33 AM PST by Kaslin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last
To: Kaslin
I would be amongst one of the ones who would like to an exit pollster.

Why? For the simple reason that I don't think it's anyone else's business as to whom I voted for - plain and simple. I certainly would not volunteer that information readily.

21 posted on 01/11/2008 4:52:06 AM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
I do not believe this theory for one minute. This is the excuse the pollsters are using to cover their butts for “missing the mark”.

The Clintons would resort to whatever it takes to win. If Hillary cannot have it, she will steal it.

The only reason the Beast was crying is that they would have preferred to have her anointed.

Remember folks, they will do whatever it takes. They will justify it in their belief that we are doing it for the good of the people.

All the angst on Clinton operatives that day was about the fact they had to put in place the plan to “steal” the vote.

I am sure they used several techniques of thievery working together in New Hampshire.

22 posted on 01/11/2008 4:56:36 AM PST by dforest (Duncan Hunter is the best hope we have on both fronts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

It also has to be factored in that NH shares a border with the highly liberal Ben and Jerry state and it is very easy for Vermonters to cross over and vote in NH. The same is obviously true for Massachusetts. I’d like to see a comparison of results from polling locations close to the border vs. farther from the border.


23 posted on 01/11/2008 5:02:14 AM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: indylindy
All the angst on Clinton operatives that day was about the fact they had to put in place the plan to “steal” the vote.

I disagree: Hillary!s folks wouldn't have any angst whatsoever about stealing an election.

The angst was contrived and feigned in order to lower expections (drop them right through the floor actually) so that when she won it would be "Comeback Kid" part deux.
24 posted on 01/11/2008 5:09:52 AM PST by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: tanknetter

Let me clarify myself.

Did you look at those people? The looked awful. McAuliffe never looked worse or acted more distracted.

The angst was not because they really didn’t want to have to do it. The angst would be the stress involved with carrying it off.

No matter what, they are people, awful ones at that. They do not want to leave anything out there to expose them. That would be the end of the line.


25 posted on 01/11/2008 5:22:56 AM PST by dforest (Duncan Hunter is the best hope we have on both fronts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

It’s the Mass/NY import effect, IMO.

Although the Bradley Effect may have also played a part.


26 posted on 01/11/2008 5:25:10 AM PST by MortMan (Have a pheasant plucking day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: UCFRoadWarrior
Totally anecdotal but I’ve lived up here for three years and I have to agree with the Bradley effect explanation
I liken the soft racism up here with a term I heard back in the 80’s “Massachusetts Democrat”. They’re all for that equal rights business and that busing thing, as long as it’s somewhere else and not in their state. Up here, they like things the way they’ve always been and the last thing they want is a change. I would think that the transplants inhabited the areas that went for Obama (portsmouth, Exeter, Durham, Manchester) and the natives voted for the nice white girl that promised us stuff.

People don’t run around screaming racial epithets at minorities but they also don’t go out of their way to encourage racial diversity either. I can’t judge what lies in people’s hearts but their actions speak volumes. A few members of my homeowners association were concerned that I would sell my house to “those people that would lower property value”..

27 posted on 01/11/2008 5:36:06 AM PST by newnhdad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: pieceofthepuzzle

There was something in the Boston Globe, look on their website.


28 posted on 01/11/2008 5:37:54 AM PST by newnhdad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin


New Hampshire is a short drive for many in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts.

It would be interesting to know if the "surge" of first day registrants in this open primary state
were concentrated in NH border precincts. I wonder if anyone has photos of cars with non-NH
licenses. Ballot-stuffing is not unknown to the Clinton crowd and their union supporters.

.


29 posted on 01/11/2008 5:48:33 AM PST by OESY
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I have my doubts about the Bradley effect. The Kerry/Bush exit polls in 2004 were way off also, and no black man was in that race.

I see it like this - not everyone agrees to talk to pollsters. I would think that young liberals would be more likely to, and older, busy conservatives would be less likely to. The pollsters try to mathematically compensate for this discrepancy, but doing so is a statistical crap shoot.

Obama, as we have heard, draws votes from a younger crowd than Hillary, so he is going to poll better than he does in the voting booth.


30 posted on 01/11/2008 5:50:03 AM PST by Toskrin (Bringing you global cooling since 1999)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right

Yep, liberals are huge racists. That was brought home to me at a family gathering recently. I have a very, very liberal uncle, I’m talking way left (worked for the Jerry Brown for President campaign in the ‘70s) who has his nose out of joint because my cousin, his niece, is marrying a black man. And he didn’t mind telling me that, straight out. He just assumed I was a racist, too.

No question whom he’ll vote for in the election.


31 posted on 01/11/2008 6:12:54 AM PST by LadyNavyVet (I'm a monthly donor, are you?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

ahh so it was alllllll just racism.

This means the MSM does not have to report the REAL story of the bus convoys.

Does anyone have pictures?


32 posted on 01/11/2008 6:15:15 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I believe the bradley effect. You can see it in the Maryland 2006 Senate race.

However, I don’t think that’s the only explanation for New Hampshire.

If you look at the demographic, Hillary cleaned up on older people. So the question is, did the polls before the election properly reflect the percentage of old people vs young people who showed up to vote?

Maybe the pollsters all had some model for how many young poeple and old people would actually vote, and that model turned out to be wrong.

Remember, most polls have a 3-4 point MOE, and that’s assuming the model is correct. MOE isn’t a measure of “how often the poll is ‘wrong’”, it’s an indication of a reasonable probability that the numbers provided are off by up to the MOE. a MOE of 4% generally means that 95% of the time, data like that in the poll yields numbers withint 4% up or down from where the actual results will end up.

Which also means that 5% of the time, the poll yields numbers which are FARTHER than 4% from the real numbers.

The question that needs to be answered in order to determine if the polling model is right is to see if the subsamples of the poll match the results, given the actual turnout.

You can’t use exit polls for this, because they too have errors, although they are a good first cut — you could break down your exit polls by age for example, and compare it to a the last day polling by age, and if it matches, your model was wrong.

But AGE is publicly known, so if you simply look at the names of everybody who showed up to vote, and calculate their age and gender, you can use that to re-do the last polls with actual turnout information, and see if they get the correct answer.

If not, then there could have been a bradley effect. If the polls give the RIGHT answer with the right model, the problem was the model, not the people answering the questions.


33 posted on 01/11/2008 6:28:25 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Who is Bradley?

Come on.


34 posted on 01/11/2008 6:30:24 AM PST by fightinJAG ("Tell the truth. The Pajama People are watching you.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: UCFRoadWarrior

I don;’t think she could have brought in enough out-of-staters, AND convinced them to essentially lie, to make an 11-percent shift. I would say that even if you were serious about cheating, doing it with more than a couple hundred people would risk being caught.

If she brought even 2000 voters in, she would have to have done enough advertising that SOMEBODY who supported Obama would have gotten the “word” and leaked it, and somebody who actually VOTED would have bragged about it.

So while it’s an interesting theory, it doesn’t seem practical in actuality.


35 posted on 01/11/2008 6:30:24 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kozak

Good point. Here would be a very interesting study — how well did Obama do in Iowa at the individual caucuses, when comparing caucuses where at least one black person was attending vs ones where NO blacks attended.

If the bradley effect was in effect, I’d expect that Obama would do better in caucuses where a black person was in attendance, because some of the white people would feel compelled to prove they were not racist by standing publicly in the Obama group.

I wonder if anybody has the data to DO that study?


36 posted on 01/11/2008 6:33:31 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: tanknetter

Yes, as one of the talk show host pointed out — Somehow, Clinton managed to take a double-digit lead in New Hampshire, and in the course of a single month turn a sqeacker of a victory into a “comeback”.


37 posted on 01/11/2008 6:35:08 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: OESY

Interesting that Portsmouth and Keene are close to the MA border, and these were locations where they had such huge numbers that they ran out of ballots.


38 posted on 01/11/2008 9:06:25 AM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

That’s a pretty good analysis, but I still say that Clinton vote fraud was a significant factor.


39 posted on 01/11/2008 9:14:24 AM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pieceofthepuzzle
Portsmouth, on the Maine border, might indicate voting by interlopers from, say, Portland, ME, rather than Massachusetts. Also Keene is closer to Brattleboro, VT, the city where some nut has proposed arresting Bush and Cheney for war crimes.

.

40 posted on 01/11/2008 12:49:36 PM PST by OESY
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson