In 1996, Harry Shearer and I founded the Partnership for a Poll-Free America, a campaign urging people to hang up on the pollsters who are polluting our political environment by dominating media coverage, influencing election outcomes, and turning our political leaders into slavish followers.
We were able to get a few thousand people to take our Say No to Pollsters pledge but, at the time, the Huffington Post wasn't even a glimmer in my eye, and "going viral" was still something that required a visit to the doctor.
In the dozen years since then, the problems caused by polling have only gotten worse.
Today's political landscape is littered with media mavens who insist on treating polling results as if Moses just brought them down from the mountaintop. And reporters have become addicted to the ease of reporting the latest horse-race results as if they were actual news.
Look at the five days between Iowa and New Hampshire, when the political conversation (including here on HuffPost) was dominated by polls that turned out to be wildly inaccurate. USA Today had Obama up by 13 points just two days before he lost by three. A sixteen-point swing -- in 48 hours -- is, I trust, beyond the "margin or error." And please don't tell me it was the result of Hillary getting misty.
But even if they had been right, do we want our political debate dominated not by issues but by who is up and who is down, who is hot and who is not?
No wonder politicians have become pathological people pleasers, addicted to the short-term buzz of a bump in the polls, who can't even get dressed in the morning without consulting the latest numbers.
But we can't expect these polling junkies -- both in the media and those running for office -- to kick the habit on their own. We have to stage an intervention. And it's as easy as hanging up your phone. Response rates are already abysmally low -- often dropping below 25%. So if enough of us refuse to answer, the polling data will become so unrepresentative and unreliable even the media would have to admit it was useless.
So I'm asking you to sign our Say No to Pollsters petition.
It's fast, it's easy, and it can be very effective. In fact, if everyone who signs the petition also gets everyone they know in states with upcoming primaries to sign the petition too, it can have an immediate impact on the way the 2008 race is reported on and run.
By just saying "No" to pollsters any time they call, we can force our leaders -- and the reporters who cover them -- to start thinking for themselves again. Starting here. Starting now.
So sign the petition and Say "No" to Pollsters! And send it to everyone you know in Nevada, Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida. Remember: Friends Don't Let Friends Talk to Pollsters!
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
As for dissing astrology Ariana, have you delved into it at all? FYI, there is a big difference between pop superficial sun sign columns and the real thing, which is quite complex and revealing. Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, Jung, and Ben Franklin couldn't all be wrong. Please, keep an open mind.
The trick, dear friends, is to LIE to the pollsters. If even a small percentage of us do that, their results will soon be meaningless and they won't be able to work around that very easily because they won't know which responses to trust.
Moreover, once the polls start missing badly and regularly, the candidates will have to tell us what they think - not what they believe we want to hear. That will help in unimaginable ways.
I also don't reveal my vote to exit polling since the so called 'count' is used to influence the public who have not voted yet. One more thing ...
I have changed my party affiliation to 'Independent' because the two-party system is corrupt and self-serving. If the American people registered as neither Democratic or Republican, it would confuse the hell out of the two parties which would be fine with me.
The real solution is to lie to pollsters. Pick the least popular candidate and tell them that's who you're voting for. Cross parties. Whatever it is that you're going to do, tell them the exact opposite.
Only by making their product useless will we be able to make a dent in their utility to corporate media.
developed to bring about the IMPEACHMENT AND/OR RESIGNATION OF BUSH
AND CHENEY.
that you, Arianna, bring Huffpost back to your original
outline for political and world discussions and debates.
That means eliminating the AWFUL HEADLINES USED
HERE.
Do you really believe the only reason we will read articles on your website is if you use "National Enquirer"
styled headlines?
The polls ALREADY have huge non-response and nonparticipation rates. Its part of the the dirty little secret of the polling industry. They have to make thousands of calls to get the hundreds of samples in their results. The other part is that the polling industry ALREADY ignores their high nonparticipation rates. The margin-of-error rates are a statistical calculation comparing the sample size to the studied population size. It includes no factor for the number of nonparticipations rates.
If Huffpost REALLY wants to do something about polls they should take a pledge among their own headline and story writers:
1. Poll numbers will only be reported as ranges taking into account the margin of error.
2. Sample sizes will be mentioned at the top of the story and in any summary, not buried at the last line of the article.
Trolls? Plants? Or just plain people?
Something to keep in mind.
People really need to familiarize themselve with the issues, and make their own "informed," opinions. By "informed," I mean the use of newspapers, the net, magazines and intellect, plus life experience.
Listening to only one source is not very enlightening.
But the real problem is a lack of public control over electronic voting machines. If ever there was an area where private interests have no business it is in the counting of our votes.
And it is not just Diebold....I believe there are four companies making voting machines and they are all suspect. They refuse to let us see how their machines work claiming the technology is 'proprietary'. What in the hell could be proprietary about:
1) Push the John Doe button
2) Count one vote for John Doe
???