The TV networks won't publish a poll with a result that isn't neck and neck. If it's clear that one candidate will take the race then why should the parties waste money advertising there? Better make it a horse race to make sure those last minute placements happen. California TV never gets big ad spends because everyone knows it's the OG Democrat machine state. I'm sure that KTLA would love to get some of that Trump war chest but why should he bother?
For a few years I was one of the citizens polled by the Pew Research Center for the American Trends Panel. Once a quarter (usually, sometimes more often) they'd send me a link to a web-based poll asking general policy and economic questions. My answers were worth a $5 Amazon gift card, so why not?
Most of the time the questions seemed to have a neutral voice, asking "on a scale of 1 to 5" type questions on a variety of topics. They would ask about political candidates and parties, but in a "how likely are you to vote for..." tone. There were also a few open-ended questions and at the end you could always add you own comments, which I did often, making sure that the libertarian POV was included (but I was also very honest, not trying to "play god" with the survey).
At some point during the Trump administration my tour of duty came to an end. I'd like to think it was just that my number came up but who knows? Maybe they didn't like my favorable view of Trump's foreign policy.
I'm not sure that they got any good information from me, but I got a lot of Amazon movie rentals out of them.
Yes, the "margin for cheating"! Publicized polls train the believing readers/viewers to expect a particular result as reasonable.
The TV networks won't publish a poll with a result that isn't neck and neck. If it's clear that one candidate will take the race then why should the parties waste money advertising there? Better make it a horse race to make sure those last minute placements happen. California TV never gets big ad spends because everyone knows it's the OG Democrat machine state. I'm sure that KTLA would love to get some of that Trump war chest but why should he bother?
For a few years I was one of the citizens polled by the Pew Research Center for the American Trends Panel. Once a quarter (usually, sometimes more often) they'd send me a link to a web-based poll asking general policy and economic questions. My answers were worth a $5 Amazon gift card, so why not?
https://www.pewresearch.org/the-american-trends-panel/
Most of the time the questions seemed to have a neutral voice, asking "on a scale of 1 to 5" type questions on a variety of topics. They would ask about political candidates and parties, but in a "how likely are you to vote for..." tone. There were also a few open-ended questions and at the end you could always add you own comments, which I did often, making sure that the libertarian POV was included (but I was also very honest, not trying to "play god" with the survey).
At some point during the Trump administration my tour of duty came to an end. I'd like to think it was just that my number came up but who knows? Maybe they didn't like my favorable view of Trump's foreign policy.
I'm not sure that they got any good information from me, but I got a lot of Amazon movie rentals out of them.
Very interesting. I'm hoping this reflects that Pew is on the "not so awful" end of the political polling spectrum.
And congrats on getting something useful (gift cards) out of politics!
We are in for a heck of an election night.