[Zakeet]

Author's conclusion: It's admittedly a SWAG* but those in the industry are sure they're getting it right, even though they don't know for sure.

*Scientific Wild-Assed Guess

Interesting comment at the end of the article: Just an anecdotal observation, but the people I know who are partisan (either Dems or Republicans) are much more likely to talk to pollsters than the independents, who aren't that interested in discussing their views. There are so many more independents today than even a few election cycles ago, so I wonder if they are part of the problem in getting good response rates.

[bmwcyle]

If there is not a name or I do not recognize the number on caller ID, I do not answer the phone.

[syriacus]

Interesting. Thanks for posting this.

[stevem]

Scott Keeter, director of survey research at Pew, added that while there was evidence a decade ago that people with racially conservative views were likely to put their receivers down, that trend has diminished. "In 1997, the first time we did [an experiment], we did find a small--I emphasize small--degree of potential bias in under-representing racial conservatism

OK, I'll bite. What do "racially conservative" and "racial conservatism" mean?

[healy61]

The comment “should we be worried” leaves me wondering what the worry is about. That they aren’t getting it right, or that the One is gonna get his butt handed to himself. LOL I think it is the latter.

[rusureitflies?]

many folks, with caller id, don’t waste their time with polls, a lot of working folks don’t give a rap.. polls are for media junkies...like 3 small minnows in the Mississippi River feeling REAL important about themselves for being bait..

[rusureitflies?]

many folks, with caller id, don’t waste their time with polls, a lot of working folks don’t give a rap.. polls are for media junkies...like 3 small minnows in the Mississippi River feeling REAL important about themselves for being bait..

[rusureitflies?]

many folks, with caller id, don’t waste their time with polls, a lot of working folks don’t give a rap.. polls are for media junkies...like 3 small minnows in the Mississippi River feeling REAL important about themselves for being bait..

[rusureitflies?]

many folks, with caller id, don’t waste their time with polls, a lot of working folks don’t give a rap.. polls are for media junkies...like 3 small minnows in the Mississippi River feeling REAL important about themselves for being bait..

[Aussiebabe]

uh, so people who hang up are “racists”?

[BRL]

I have not been polled, but I have often thought I would just tell them that I’d vote for Obama. I am sick of the pollsters influencing the elections. Lets make them a big joke.

[dubie]

these people should be the hanging chads in the poll numbers

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Zogby is being reported as stating, "The presidential election might be a tight race now, but one of the country’s top pollsters thinks the race will end in an electoral landslide."

... the country will likely vote for “a comfortable old shoe”, that being Republican Sen. John McCain.

Apparently there is a landslide sized shit load of of bitter religious gun clinging racists out there.

[Dixie Yooper]

I never take part in polls, and when I do end up with a pollster on the line, I tell them “I'm on the National Do Not Solicit List.” That always brings a “I'm not soliciting you for money.” which I always respond with “You trying to solicit my opinion.” Then I hang up. It's a total waste of my time, but it makes me feel good :)

[ari-freedom]

I don’t answer polls. I refuse to play their game.

[SECURE AMERICA]

there a certain type of person likely to refuse the probing calls?

Yeah. They are called people that have real lives....

[Question_Assumptions]

What about people who have no land lines and only cell phones?

[Sal]

Several pollsters I spoke to this week said there isn't a notable disparity between the types of people who answer questions and those who do not. John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, told me that over the past few decades, there has been a "democratization of refusals" and that there is a 95-percent confidence rate in polls' accuracy. ...

I am howling with laughter. Ummm.... Beyond even the growing number of Indies, how do they know what "type of people" someone is who won't even talk to them.

I know they have registration lists, but how do they know a D is a radical socialist D or an intelligent Reagan Democrat. How do they know if an R is a drooling Snow/Collins R or a real Republican.

Fortunately they can read minds with the click of a hang up as the only clue.

[bray]

The dirty little secret is that w/caller ID, these polls are nearly worthless. The miscalls in the primaries should tell you all you need to know.

Pray for W, McCuda and Our Troops

[reagan_fanatic]

"These whites who do not respond to surveys tend to have more unfavorable views of blacks than respondents who do the interviews," Kohut wrote.

[Pit1]

I have always believed that polls should be for "OWN USE", like medicine. The organization that commissions the poll, can use it within the organization and not publish.

We all know the term sheeple. Polls can lead sheeple into the pollsters way of thinking and get the desired results. Polls are not taken to get a feel for how people are feeling, they are taken to direct an outcome and that's the outcome the commissioning organization wants.

That's my story and I'm sticken to it.