Pre-election polls: keep them or ban them?

brianlux
brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,671
in A Moving Train
I'm all for taking surveys on line and even matching them against other results. Some are amusing, some mindless, some even a little revealing. But what about election polls? What usefulness do they have and does that usefulness out-weigh the negative?

My own feeling is that pre-election polls are probably easy as pie to manipulate (duh) and because they are statistics they can be made to lie. Besides that, doesn't it seem likely that they all too often serve as either a way to sway votes or make it super easy for people to cast lazy votes? (Hey man, everybody in my stinking town is voting for Smith. Screw that guy, I'm voting for Bartz.). It's bad enough that there is no basic requirement or even simple social pressure to understand anything at all about government or candidates in order to be able to vote. It's like that bit they did on college campuses asking students questions like WHO DEFEATED WHOM IN THE CIVIL WAR, FROM WHICH COUNTRY DID THE UNITE STATES GAIN ITS INDEPENDENCE, WHO IS THE CURRENT VICE PRESIDENT? The most frequent answer was, "Ahhhh, dunno?" Bit when asked to who (or not) Angelina Jolie is married, BOOM, fast answer!

Exit polling needs to go, period.

Several countries (38 to be exact) have banned pre-election polls including Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Mexico, Norway, Poland and Venezuela and day before and voting day in France. I would be all for it.

Along with that would I would support added pressure to increase political/ current events related education (use Socratic dialog, don't make it dull!) and, of course, critical thinking.
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni

Comments

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,671
    I should add, I like forum polls like those found on these forums. They're interesting and harmless. No prob with them.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • Free
    Free Posts: 3,562
    Several countries (38 to be exact) have banned pre-election polls including Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Mexico, Norway, Poland and Venezuela and day before and voting day in France. I would be all for it.
    I'm all for this too. And yeah, all the rest too.
  • hedonist
    hedonist Posts: 24,524
    I'm not sure how polls and basic civics education would be tied together.

    And...exit polling as bad/inconsequential/influential as pre-election one? That confused me a bit.

    I don't know. If some polls are considered OK, then why not others. I mean really, ban them? I'd rather put it on people to be responsible enough to figure out whether or not those polls should be given credence.
  • mickeyrat
    mickeyrat Posts: 44,766
    Too many this cycle. Contradict each other and then change the next day. And there is never the reporting of the questions asked and demographic asked.

    I was called for presidential and cut them off second question, when asked if I was voting dem or gop. Not one word of the other 2. Shit at a minimum johnson should be included as that ticket is on all 50 states ballots. And because of polling numbers the debate commision will disallow them to participate. We're seeing just how truly skewed things are.

    For a start the league of women's voters should take back stewardship oof the pres debates. Each poll released should contain the methodology and questions asked.AND reported on with that info.. then WE can place whatever weight on a particular poll we wish.
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  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,671
    hedonist said:

    I'm not sure how polls and basic civics education would be tied together.

    And...exit polling as bad/inconsequential/influential as pre-election one? That confused me a bit.

    I don't know. If some polls are considered OK, then why not others. I mean really, ban them? I'd rather put it on people to be responsible enough to figure out whether or not those polls should be given credence.

    What I mean about polls and education is almost the reverse of tying them together. My thought is to educate voters and not use polls (and big money advertising) as a substitute for that. We sell, sublimate, channel, and cajole voters rather than make sure they are educated.

    Regarding "ban"-- good point. "Ban" is to hard-assed a word. It's too much like censorship. Politics is a complicated came, however, and since most of us do not object to game rules, what if we just said, "In major elections, polls are against the rules"?

    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • Free
    Free Posts: 3,562
    mickeyrat said:

    Too many this cycle. Contradict each other and then change the next day. And there is never the reporting of the questions asked and demographic asked.

    I was called for presidential and cut them off second question, when asked if I was voting dem or gop. Not one word of the other 2. Shit at a minimum johnson should be included as that ticket is on all 50 states ballots. And because of polling numbers the debate commision will disallow them to participate. We're seeing just how truly skewed things are.

    For a start the league of women's voters should take back stewardship oof the pres debates. Each poll released should contain the methodology and questions asked.AND reported on with that info.. then WE can place whatever weight on a particular poll we wish.

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