If you own a cell phone have the pollsters called you on it this election season ?

With the demise of hard line phones are the pollsters accurately reflecting what the polls really are ?

At best they are a very general indicator of how old people that typically use land lines are leaning towards. Does not include the majority of people that do not use land lines or don't answer phone calls from unknown sources.

Basically, an easy trick up to the sleeve of the mainstream media to pump this crap out 24/7 to get there favorites positive coverage and their opponents negative. Gallup, the long time pollster company that decided not to cover polls for the 2016 election, even pointed this out saying polling is no longer valid due to modern phone technology and greatly reduced usage of land lines.

Basically polls in 2016 tell you how the baby boomers will vote, not Generation X or millennials or Generation Z who are casting their first votes in a federal election, now boomer's are the biggest voting block but if X, Y And Z come out in force for one candidate they will tip the scales.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

I remember a time when "Nielsen Ratings" were supposed to be the poll or poles about what shows were popular. Segments of society were given a box to respond to queries about programming of television shows. Do they still do that?

Considering not everyone watched TV shows back then, how could that be reflective of what people were doing? Now they just go by what people buy.

When the sales of budweiser go up during the Super Bowl is that because of million dollar a second ads during the game, or just that people get drunk during the game more than they do otherwise?

As far as polling, there have been canvases in my (posted: No Soliciting) hood lately, when other sales people are prevented by calls from neighbors to police.

I'm an 'old person', I don't own a cell phone.

May have - I don't answer numbers I don't know.

I have been polled on my cell and land line by two different polling organizations and both seemed skewed to the Right of the political spectrum.

Plus I was polled on my land line at my retail store but I couldn't finish the questionnaire.....business.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

This chart explains how they do polls and it does say that auto dial does not include cell phones while manual dial do.
Anyway they compensate the 18-35 group to accommodate the facts. It does say as more people stop using landlines they will have to change things.

www.electoral-vote.com...



Interesting.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

There are a few different ways they poll. They do call cell phones. They also call Skype type communications but the users can chose any area code they want and they can skew the results if a pollster thinks he's talking to Kentucky when he's rallying calling New York.

The above chart says a bigger group than cell phone users that are left out of polls are voters living overseas.

a reply to: intrptr

I just did a two year run with arbitron/neilson.
You wear a device that picks up signals in tv and radio broadcasts.
They don't really poll. Certainly not election results.
For the conspiracy minded we were told not to tell anyone we were participating. If they asked about the device we were wearing we were supposed to say it was just a pager. It was all very hush hush.
They said if people knew they would tell us what to watch and it would skew the results. I can talk about it now I guess. I didn't sign a nondisclosure agreement or anything.

Looks around for G-men

No I have not been polled.Neither has my husband or our daughter.
As far as Nielsen we have Playstation Vue for our cable it automatically has Nielsen's software in it....

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

-I don't answer 800 or 900 long distance numbers.

-If I get a local call and I realize it's politically related or someone trying to sell me insurance, I just hang up.

-If I get political or religious canvasing at my door, I honestly tell them I'm not affiliated with any party or religion and just shut the door.

It may seem rude, but if businesses can reject soliciting, I definitely have the right to reject any solicitation that comes to the privacy of my home or phone. I also that junk mail, TV advertisements and pop-up computer ads go against the right to our privacy. Our representatives should be protecting our privacy rights, yet they allow corporate interests to invade our rights to privacy everyday.

Most people that I know do not have land lines any longer, including myself. Those I know from the younger generation who are buying their first homes (kids and their friends) do not even consider adding a land line.

I also don't know of anyone who has been called for a poll this election cycle.

As a couple of people above have also mentioned, if I get a call to my mobile from a number that I don't recognize, I let it go to voicemail.

So, you are correct that any poll is skewed and influenced by the population that they are actually asking, and that is rarely representative of the population as a whole.

a reply to: Blue_Jay33

No calls.

No land line.

Nobody's interested in my opinion.

a reply to: WeRpeons

Its not rude, they appreciate when you cut them off rather than waiting the whole spiel before saying, "not".

Gets to save their breath for someone else.

I have had three so far this election.

I just feed them BS as i am on the do not call list and i always wonder how many others do the same just to screw up the polls.

Yes I've had Bernie Sanders pollsters call me on my cell phone and show up at my house asking for me specifically