So, OK, this question is essentially a poll about polls, and I’ll confess right up front: I think most of them are hogwash. Unless of course they favor my political candidate or point of view. Then they’re spot on, man!
But I’m curious what you think: Are they accurate? And if so (I guess you should answer this one in the comment section) why do we bother with elections at all? And if not, then why do we bother?
Have your say in this week’s Heller Poll:
Kathy Fiebig says
I believe they can be tweaked (rigged??) to show whatever the pollster wants them to show. A poll calling cell phones in southern California will yield very different results than a poll calling land lines in southern Mississippi. Just sayin’.
I’d like to see them outlawed. Just vote. Over and done with, per the guidelines laid out right here by Andrew Heller himself several weeks (centuries??) ago.
Tom says
So… here we have a poll on polls… Two layers of pollsterism… From a guy who says he hates polls… Hmmmm… Enough! Poll Vault! We will know in a week.
Alexandra says
I wish I had noticed exactly when it was we became a nation of the “unscientific.” It is just too sad to see how virtually everyone can talk themselves out of just about anything now if they want to badly enough (vaccine effectiveness, polls, global warming, etc.) An individual poll may be discounted or vaguely off, but when 150 of them from reliable sources come out saying your candidate is going to lose it isn’t “rigged” folks, it’s most likely he is going to lose.
Jim says
Bingo!
Karen Bjork says
What polls? Pole vaulters? People who live in Poland? Poll workers?
Flag poles? South poles? North poles? Nah….I don’t pay much attention to them.
6 weeks of campaigning sounds about right at this point.
The one who sits on top of the flag pole the longest wins. Makes sense don’t you think?
Louise Dawson says
Lol!
Tom Backus says
FiveThirtyEight does a pretty good job. The rest of the polls are for trolls!
JimS says
Whatever the political views of the people taking the polls is what they come up with! Don’t believe a word of them?
Robert Simpson says
As more people decline to answer polls, the results become more and more inaccurate. It could be a certain type of personality always answers polls and if that group is heavily in favor of candidate B, then the poll will actually be saying that people who answer polls are voting for candidate B.
Andrew Heller says
I’m fascinated how they even reach anyone – I wouldn’t answer a call from a number I don’t know, and I’d hang up the second I realized it wasn’t a personal call.
Louise Dawson says
No. They cannot be so even!