Poll Says Cellphones Still Aren't Killing Political Polls

from the not-this-year dept

Fri, Oct 27th 2006 12:12pm — Joseph Weisenthal

For some time there's been a lot of concern about what effect the rise of the cellphone-only demographic would have on the business of political polling. And every time election day gets near, you can count upon pundits and articles about how the polls might not be reliable this year, because they're missing all of these people that don't have land lines anymore. Well according to a new, er, poll, the cell phones are yet to have a significant impact on on polling. Not only is the cellphone-only population still not that large, but people who only have cellphones are less likely to be registered to vote, probably due to the fact that this population skews younger. Still, with more people going to cellphones and VoIP phones, eventually the polling industry is going to have to confront this issue. Expect to hear all these stories again in '08.

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9 Comments

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Jamie, 27 Oct 2006 @ 12:33pm

Poll says polls aren't skewed?
If cell phone use might be skewing the results of political polls, how do we know that this poll is not also skewed. LOL
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2006 @ 1:28pm

Re: Poll says polls aren't skewed?
well, i doubt this poll was done by calling people up. thats why. i'm not saying its not skewed, i'm just saying its not skewed due to cell phones.
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Tommy, 27 Oct 2006 @ 1:40pm

Likely whitewashing??
Could this be an effort by the establishment to try to put the meme out that polls are inaccurate? Are they trying to prepare us for "unexpected" or "irregular" election results that somehow miraculously do not agree at all with what the polls are telling us?
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Jamie, 27 Oct 2006 @ 1:59pm

Re: Likely whitewashing??
Hate to say it, but polls are inaccurate. Though it has nothing to do with Cell phones. If you have ever studied how polling is done, you will realize that polls can be skewed to prove almost anything by modifying the following: Order of questions asked, wording of questions, accent of questioner, gender of questioner, time of day the question was asked, and the list goes on. The parameters and the effects of those parameters are clearly documented and researched. That is why polls (especially during an election year) can be completely above board and still be contradictory.

Oh, and by the way. The article was not saying that polls are inaccurate. It was actually saying that Cell phone use was not affecting the accuracy of Polls.
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Rick, 27 Oct 2006 @ 2:40pm

I only have a cellphone and a VOIP account with Skype (with an incoming phone number). I like not having annoying pollsters calling twice a week.

I'm also NOT 'younger' at 36 years of age. I'm actually old enough to be president and I do vote. I know of at least 4 other people very similar to myself, without landlines.

It sounds like the pollsters just don't want to admit cell phones are affecting the accuracy...
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2006 @ 3:06pm

Re: Likely whitewashing??
In your warped world, just about anything can be construed the way you want it to be construed. Spam elsewhere.
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novernetsbandit, 29 Oct 2006 @ 12:57am

cell phones?
I seen a story like this the otherday about Minnesota how we are one of the largest Cell Phone only states. I myself (24) only have cell phone and my Parents 60's are about to do the same. They have wrote there xmas letters and emails with the wording that there home phone # for the last 26 years will no longer be active as of Jan 31 2007. I know alot of older couples and singles doing the same. They all agree that the polls are mainly taken from landline phones and also telemarketing calls. thats why they are dropping that line.
So skewed polls becuase of loss of landlines is happening just not to the affect that we should give a rats tail yet!
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mike-ish, 30 Oct 2006 @ 10:54am

ported landline number
I ported my landline number to a cellphone several years ago and i still get telemarketers and pollsters calling me. This has been my phone number for three years and i get calls for the previous owner. The telemarketer calls dropped off significantly when i stopped being polite to them.
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Martin O'Malley, 6 Nov 2006 @ 3:14pm

STOP THE PERVERT
STOP BILL CLINTON, THAT SEXUAL PERVERT, FROM CALLING PEOPLE IN MARYLAND TO VOTE FOR ME!!! IT'S KILLING ME!! THE PHONE IS RINGING OFF THE HOOK! GET CLINTON OUT OF MARYLAND AND OFF THE PHONE!
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