Have you ever participated in a poll?

[HenryBHough]

Since I changed over to an internet phone there are no more polling calls. But in the landline days there'd be 3-5 polling calls before each election. I filled each one with shit so deep that their eyes turned brown.

Surely I was not alone and the tradition has continued. Hence the "reliability" of polling.

 

[Andylusion]

In my 39 yrs only one time and it was during the primary and I told them I voted for Bernie Sanders. I am an Independent and took the Dem voting card and voted for Sanders as part of operation F U Liz Warren. Other than that I have never been polled but I see 100s if not 1000s of polls out there.

So the question is for the USMB users. Have you ever been polled? And if yes when and how often?

Thank you

I have a kind of funny story about that.

One time, I got called by the Hillary Clinton campaign to take a poll.
I know it was her campaign, because I had just been on her web site, and put in my information.

My guess is, they automatically assumed that anyone who put their information into their web site must automatically be a supporter... without looking at what I said.

Because if they looked at what I said, it was something like "I'll be voting against you".

So they called me up, and asked if I would take a quick poll. I agreed.

The first couple of questions were demographics. "Are you male or female" which part of me wanted to just mess with them, and say "Apache Helicopter". And then what race are you "Undisclosed" and repeated "Nonya" when they kept asking.
Age "Three hundred in dog years".

The questioner loved me, but I knew who I was dealing with, so I kept messing with them.

So the actual poll was about 10 questions, and they were all same.

"If the election was held today, and it was between Hillary and (insert name of other person), who would you vote for?"

For all 10 questions, I said whoever was the other candidate.

Now the way they try and spin the polls, is by finding someone, or anyone, that Hillary would be preferable too.

What they want to avoid is ever reporting that "XX% of the people will never vote for Hillary" They don't want to have to say that.

So at the end of the poll, they ask "Is there anyone that you would prefer Hillary over?" Since they couldn't find someone that Hillary was preferable too, they wanted me to provide that candidate that Hillary was preferable to. That way they can avoid reporting that anyone wouldn't vote for Hillary.

"I would vote for Mickey Mouse over Hillary."

And that was the end of the poll.

Happened in 2016, around March.

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

In my 39 yrs only one time and it was during the primary and I told them I voted for Bernie Sanders. I am an Independent and took the Dem voting card and voted for Sanders as part of operation F U Liz Warren. Other than that I have never been polled but I see 100s if not 1000s of polls our there.

So the question is for the USMB users. Have you ever been polled? And if yes when and how often?

Thank you

I get polled at least once every federal election. When I lived in Toronto, I was part of focus groups in two different elections. $100 and a decent dinner. I was also polled two or three times during every election.

If you give money to candidates or a party they will likely include you in their internal polling to determine your reaction to various issues, as a solid supporter. This is used to help them shape their campaign.

If you answer all your calls, you will probably be polled. Generally, these are open access polls which are not predictive of a population.

Top polling companies such as Gallup will contact you and ask you if want to participate in a poll and if so, you are instructed to complete a form listing your demographics. Your information is stored in a database with many other respondents. From that database they form representative samples of a populations they are studying for clients. Then and only then are you polled. This is called a scientific and it's results will be predictive of the population.

One of the focus groups I was asked to attend was for the New Democratic Party: A party I had never donated to, had never voted for, and never worked for any of their candidates. So that shoots your argument full of holes.

I've been polled by the Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP. I have never donated to any of these parties. I have voted Liberal in every federal election but three since I came of age. One of the focus groups was for the NDP. They don't tell you who it's for but you can tell from the questions they ask.

No polling company has asked about my willingness to be polled, without actually polling me. I've never been polled by the same polling company twice in the same election cycle, and my phone number changed multiple times over the years, as we moved, or changed phone companies. It's only been since we left Toronto in 2013 that we haven't had a land line.

I was not arguing with you just sharing what I know about polling.
Do these polls collect a lot of demographics such as age, race, sex, marital status, income level, etc?

IDK the one I did just asked me who I voted for. Exit poll.

 

[Rocko]

Nope. I make it a point to never tell anyone that I don't know what my opinions are about politics.

 

[Dragonlady]

In my 39 yrs only one time and it was during the primary and I told them I voted for Bernie Sanders. I am an Independent and took the Dem voting card and voted for Sanders as part of operation F U Liz Warren. Other than that I have never been polled but I see 100s if not 1000s of polls our there.

So the question is for the USMB users. Have you ever been polled? And if yes when and how often?

Thank you

I get polled at least once every federal election. When I lived in Toronto, I was part of focus groups in two different elections. $100 and a decent dinner. I was also polled two or three times during every election.

If you give money to candidates or a party they will likely include you in their internal polling to determine your reaction to various issues, as a solid supporter. This is used to help them shape their campaign.

If you answer all your calls, you will probably be polled. Generally, these are open access polls which are not predictive of a population.

Top polling companies such as Gallup will contact you and ask you if want to participate in a poll and if so, you are instructed to complete a form listing your demographics. Your information is stored in a database with many other respondents. From that database they form representative samples of a populations they are studying for clients. Then and only then are you polled. This is called a scientific and it's results will be predictive of the population.

One of the focus groups I was asked to attend was for the New Democratic Party: A party I had never donated to, had never voted for, and never worked for any of their candidates. So that shoots your argument full of holes.

I've been polled by the Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP. I have never donated to any of these parties. I have voted Liberal in every federal election but three since I came of age. One of the focus groups was for the NDP. They don't tell you who it's for but you can tell from the questions they ask.

No polling company has asked about my willingness to be polled, without actually polling me. I've never been polled by the same polling company twice in the same election cycle, and my phone number changed multiple times over the years, as we moved, or changed phone companies. It's only been since we left Toronto in 2013 that we haven't had a land line.

I was not arguing with you just sharing what I know about polling.
Do these polls collect a lot of demographics such as age, race, sex, marital status, income level, etc?

None of the polls ask for race, or citizenship status. But all of the rest of the questions, yes - after they have finished polling me, not before. So yes, it would be possible to filter out the results from the demographic you don't like, but that would go against all logic and reason. The pollster's job isn't to provide propaganda and talking points to support their point of view, but to tell them what will appeal to given demographics of the population.

Parties hire polling companies to help them get elected. Lying to their clients about their popularity with the voters, or skewing the demographics to get the results the client would like to hear, is going to have the opposite effect. Pollsters have to accurately assess the general public's response to their candidates, not just how their voting base feels about them.

The Trump Cults keep quoting that the 2016 polls all said Hillary was 200% certain to win, but that's just another Trumpian lie. The polls were right in predicting the popular vote result, within a margin of error, but missed the electoral college results by a mile, in part because of the low voter turn out in swing states, and the highly energized alt-right fringe Republicans turned out en mass.

Well this time the black voters who stayed home last time, and the suburban college educated voters who held their noses and voted for Trump, the women who could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton, and stayed home, and all coming out to vote. Nobody is staying home this time, so good luck with that.


None of the companies will say who they're polling on behalf of, but it's generally not difficult to tell. Polling on behalf of the Harper Conservatives was easy: The name of the polling company came up on my phone, and anyone who follows politics knows which campaign hired them. And questions like "Do you support American style health care?" are a dead give away. Similarly, the focus group asked our reactions to proposed NDP TV ads.

 

[Dragonlady]

Nope. I make it a point to never tell anyone that I don't know what my opinions are about politics.

Good for you. Another Trump voter heard from. Paranoid and delusional to the core.

 

[Rocko]

Nope. I make it a point to never tell anyone that I don't know what my opinions are about politics.

Good for you. Another Trump voter heard from. Paranoid and delusional to the core.

I'm not a Trump voter, Canuck

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

Nope. I make it a point to never tell anyone that I don't know what my opinions are about politics.

Good for you. Another Trump voter heard from. Paranoid and delusional to the core.

He is not a Trump supporter and please don’t derail the thread.

 

[Flopper]

In my 39 yrs only one time and it was during the primary and I told them I voted for Bernie Sanders. I am an Independent and took the Dem voting card and voted for Sanders as part of operation F U Liz Warren. Other than that I have never been polled but I see 100s if not 1000s of polls our there.

So the question is for the USMB users. Have you ever been polled? And if yes when and how often?

Thank you

I get polled at least once every federal election. When I lived in Toronto, I was part of focus groups in two different elections. $100 and a decent dinner. I was also polled two or three times during every election.

If you give money to candidates or a party they will likely include you in their internal polling to determine your reaction to various issues, as a solid supporter. This is used to help them shape their campaign.

If you answer all your calls, you will probably be polled. Generally, these are open access polls which are not predictive of a population.

Top polling companies such as Gallup will contact you and ask you if want to participate in a poll and if so, you are instructed to complete a form listing your demographics. Your information is stored in a database with many other respondents. From that database they form representative samples of a populations they are studying for clients. Then and only then are you polled. This is called a scientific and it's results will be predictive of the population.

One of the focus groups I was asked to attend was for the New Democratic Party: A party I had never donated to, had never voted for, and never worked for any of their candidates. So that shoots your argument full of holes.

I've been polled by the Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP. I have never donated to any of these parties. I have voted Liberal in every federal election but three since I came of age. One of the focus groups was for the NDP. They don't tell you who it's for but you can tell from the questions they ask.

No polling company has asked about my willingness to be polled, without actually polling me. I've never been polled by the same polling company twice in the same election cycle, and my phone number changed multiple times over the years, as we moved, or changed phone companies. It's only been since we left Toronto in 2013 that we haven't had a land line.

I was not arguing with you just sharing what I know about polling.
Do these polls collect a lot of demographics such as age, race, sex, marital status, income level, etc?

None of the polls ask for race, or citizenship status. But all of the rest of the questions, yes - after they have finished polling me, not before. So yes, it would be possible to filter out the results from the demographic you don't like, but that would go against all logic and reason. The pollster's job isn't to provide propaganda and talking points to support their point of view, but to tell them what will appeal to given demographics of the population.

Parties hire polling companies to help them get elected. Lying to their clients about their popularity with the voters, or skewing the demographics to get the results the client would like to hear, is going to have the opposite effect. Pollsters have to accurately assess the general public's response to their candidates, not just how their voting base feels about them.

The Trump Cults keep quoting that the 2016 polls all said Hillary was 200% certain to win, but that's just another Trumpian lie. The polls were right in predicting the popular vote result, within a margin of error, but missed the electoral college results by a mile, in part because of the low voter turn out in swing states, and the highly energized alt-right fringe Republicans turned out en mass.

Well this time the black voters who stayed home last time, and the suburban college educated voters who held their noses and voted for Trump, the women who could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton, and stayed home, and all coming out to vote. Nobody is staying home this time, so good luck with that.


None of the companies will say who they're polling on behalf of, but it's generally not difficult to tell. Polling on behalf of the Harper Conservatives was easy: The name of the polling company came up on my phone, and anyone who follows politics knows which campaign hired them. And questions like "Do you support American style health care?" are a dead give away. Similarly, the focus group asked our reactions to proposed NDP TV ads.

Those polls sound more like open access polls rather scientific polls where samples are carefully built to reflect a given population. If you collect demographics after the questions are asked, the demographics the respondent reports may be influence by the poll questions. In order to have a better sample, scientific polls usually collect demographics before polling plus it reduces costs by avoiding polling people that don’t meet the polling criteria.

A couple of things to keep in mind about polls, many polls are done by amateurs that know nothing about polling, college students, political pundits, and businesses that don’t want to spend the money to have a proper poll done.

Polling is typically a lost leader for people in the business. The real money comes selling consulting services to interpret polling results, building marketing or political campaigns, designing and conducting focus groups, and advertising campaigns. This is a multi-billion dollar business. Polling is small potatoes.