Do you believe that the polls concerning the presidential race are accurate ?

Answer 1

No! I think they are all rigged....I think whichever campaigner dishes out the most bucks will magically have the most votes. This country is full on controversy and lies!!.........;)

Answer 2

From what I learned in a college class about it, the more people who are polled, the more accurate a poll is. 2000 people is a pretty good number to go by. It's the most accurate you can get within the realm of a reasonable number of people being polled.

HOWEVER, and this is a big however, the people who are being polled in the first place must be random. If, say, CNN polled its viewers, it would most likely be inaccurate. Why? Because everyone in America doesn't watch CNN. The results of the poll would only reflect the opinions of those who watch CNN, instead of the actual opinion of Americans as a whole.

Instead, accurate polls are conducted by asking random people from the population. So, in short, in order to figure out if the polls are accurate or not, you have to look at what source is conducting the polls, and who those sources are polling.

Answer 3

Nope. Even if they have the right sample size (contrary to what some people believe you can reasonably use 1000-2000 people as a basis for the entire country). However, if you are polling a certain way that excludes a certain group more than another you can skew the results of your poll.

For example, most phone polls are done during the daytime and are not allowed to call cell phones. What kinds of people have home phones and are home during the day? Blue collar 2nd/3rd shift workers and the unemployed. These voters would more likely be a higher percentage of democrats than republicans, making the poll unreliable.

Answer 4

Wow, you asked a question in the Elections section that almost everyone agrees with. And I thought that couldn't be done.

To answer your question, I agree with pretty much everyone else on this issue; Yes Ron Paul is leading for the Republican Nomination due to the inaccuracy of the Poll Process.

Answer 5

Too early. In 2004 at this same point in the election Harry Reid seemed to be the clear front runner for the Dems.

Answer 6

All polls that you see on the news media are paid for by those who are running for office. How do you think the polls make their money? Choices are limited to make the candidate paying for the poll to look good or to receive a better outcome than they otherwise would.

http://www.cdi.org/polling/43-election-polls.cfm

Here is a list of straw poll results:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/straw-poll-results/

Answer 7

Reasonably accurate. More so than they used to be. These days so many people are watching that if an organization goes off the deep end they get called on it. Obviously there accuracy in predicting elections is higher as the election gets closer.

Answer 8

Yes and no. Polls can be misleading, though some polls are accurate like Exit polls. Many people can be bias when doing a poll. No poll is completely accurate until the actual ballots are cast, and even then it is up to the Electoral College.

Anyone reading this, should look up Electoral College on Wikipedia. Personally, I believe the Electoral College is B.S. and we should be rid of it.

Answer 9

No poll concerning anything is accurate. What do you think it tells you? Let's assume a poll is done asking who the best candidate is. Without knowing the poll receives 100% accurate answers how do you value the results? If you just happened to get all Independents who liked one candidate but they lie about who they are, their party affiliation etc. your poll is useless.

In short no poll is worth anything at all. They too inaccurate and too unreliable, and most are taken by biased one way or the other organizations.

Answer 10

I don't believe that any polls are entirely accurate, especially Presidential candidate polls and approval polls. The only way they would be entirely accurate is for the pollers to ask the questions to all 300 million Americans; as it is, they talk to maybe 1000 (often less), and generalize massively to draw their (therefore) flawed conclusions.

Answer 11

Polls are not accurate but determines who are the probable winners.

VOTE for your choice as US President on my 360 degrees blog and know who will likely win.