Say "No" to Pollsters!: a HuffPost Call to Action

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!

Sign up now!

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[BoulderSue]

I would add some sort of rule that says that exit polls on the East coast, Midwest and Mountain time cannot be reported until West coast voting has closed, so as not discourage West coasters from voting on the assumption that the rest of the country has already decided a general election. In a close elrction that would be a real tragedy, equivalent to denying West coasters their voting rights altogether.

[BuckarooBanzai]

The problem isn't the polls, the problem is that Democrats (and the media) believe that polls are predictive: that the people will honestly say what they are thinking and planning to do. So they use polls for strategy and analysis and they get burned every time.

The Republicans are much smarter they know that polls and focus groups are much more effective at finding the hidden triggers to manipulate people or confuse the issue.

Frank Luntz's polling after Katrina wasn't there to understand how people felt or determine solutions. It was there to identify the best way to minimize the public relations damage and prevent a political counter-attack; hence the term "Blame Game" dominated the political conversation for the next month.

[criscokid]

Rather than polling the public, why haven't the media or you polled the candidates on some of the questions William Fisher posted on HuffPo on January 9th? I think we're all pretty clear on platform positions, but would appreciate hearing from each of the candidates on the issues Mr. Fisher had listed in his post.

[OhgReaTone]

Correct on a couple of points - the problem is with the media folks who treat the polls as if they are gold - and then they go on and on and on. Fundamentally there can be value with polling - the data can be used in very positive manners.
Ohg.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/01/12/the-value-of-political-polls/

[kevinabt]

Lets say no to rigged elections. NO TO RIGGED ELECTIONS.

[realdream]

I have a better idea! If you get called by a pollster, flip a coin and give a random answer (heads: hillary, tails: obama or some such). Even if few people do this, the poll numbers will be wrong enough to undermine people's trust in them. So how about it, folks!

[HanFeiTzu]

So true Arianna. I believe in France polling is illegal two weeks before an election.

Oh well, can't expect anything like that here; this country is so unenlightened it will never change. Just look at all the additional news and TV sales produced from those polls, or how about the added interest in TV pundits and their inane comments or predictions.

And this is the "democracy" we wish to export. What nonsense.

[Trilby]

I would love to say no to a pollster but I've never been among the 1200 people nationwide who get called.

[SolarPowerGuy]

I made this point in response to Harry Shearer's remarks -- apologies to everyone who has read it already...

Concerning polls, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water.

Those telephone polls which precede an election? Surely, I see little value in those. I have only participated in one such poll, for a minor local election. And it was an accident -- I picked up the phone, instead of letting my answering machine get it first. For whatever reason, I went along. I would have stopped immediately if I had been asked a "push-polling" question.

But the exit polls, which are taken as people leave the voting booth? I see real value in those, and we should all answer truthfully. We need the exit polls to corroborate -- or to question -- the honesty of the official government results.

It infuriates me that the 2004 Ohio elections did not get the attention they deserved. The exit polls there diverged VERY strongly from the official outcome. There is good reason to believe that vote fraud took place, and that electronic voting machines were involved.

After Florida 2000, the statisticians were on the ground all across the United States, looking for discrepancies. Have you read this report?

http://uscountvotes.org/ucvAnalysis/US/Exit_Polls_2004_Edison-Mitofsky.pdf

Had Kerry won Ohio, he would have won the Electoral College vote. Yes, Kerry would still have lost the popular vote, but that's exactly how Bush squeaked by in 2000. With two elections of this kind back-to-back, we could now be having a serious discussion about reforming the antiquated Electoral College system.

[blankmw]

I'm with you. Ignore the bores. Just say "no" to pollsters. Maybe the statisticians who run polling companies will find gainful more useful, meaningful employment elsewhere.

[fedup07]

Hello Arianna,

I think more importantly, ALL people in the US should be saying "NO" to the US voting apparatus owned by corporations.

From an article today, “Analysts at the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) have confirmed that based on the official results on the New Hampshire Secretary of state web site, there is a remarkable relationship between Obama and Clinton votes, when you look at votes tabulated by op-scan v. votes tabulated by hand:

Clinton Diebold Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Diebold Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%
The percentages appear to be swapped. That seems highly unusual, to say the least.”

Only 20% of New Hampshire's primary ballots were counted by hand. The other 80% were counted exclusively by Diebold Corporation machines. There have been many investigations, indictments, and reporting (that is public record) finding Diebold voting machines not only hackable, but Diebold employees were instructed to change previous election votes,

voting machines owned by corporation pushing their own agenda should not be allowed in the US election process AT ALL!!! Diebold (recently changed their company name to Premier Election Solutions) needs to be shut down –they are corrupt, criminal, and they are ruining the US democratic process and the US democracy!!

If you do not have any of the public information regarding Diebold, now Premier Election Solutions, please get yourselves informed.

Bev Harris, the founder of Black Box Voting also identified and broke the story on the criminal records of a number of individuals who owned, programmed, and printed ballots in the elections industry.

Look at all the investigations, pending indictments, and sentencing of people involved on Black Box Voting Org.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ & http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/1954.html

[AnninCA]

It's a silly blog, I agree. It's about like people asking other to ban retailers.

The reality is obvious. Just let the pollsters do their deal and eventually end up exactly where they ended up....with egg on their face.

Get out of the way of inevitability.

That works the best.

I don't know about other readers, but I'm actually hearing my thoughts laugh at the predictors today.

This polling blow didn't just hit the pollsters.

It really hit the pundants hard.

They ALL have zip credibility today.

And they all must be worrying about their paycheck.

[texastornado]

Arriana, you're missing the point. There is nothing wrong with the polling. In fact the polling is irrelevant. It's the counting of the votes that is the big gorilla in the room that the establisment wants to ignore. It's not who votes for what candidate that's the most important it's the vote counters that determines who wins. Fraud is running rampant in this country and it sets the example for the citizens. If the government does it then cheating on grades in school is fair game and on and on.

[green13]

It would have been a good idea if pollsters had been limited to non partisan organizations. It seems the majority here missed an important aspect of the New Hampshire primary - but the descrepacy has been found. Winning is all that is important to some people, any way they can. Obama has wisely, quietly gone about his business. Polls like reporters can whip people into frenzys and sway their opinions. But this time it served a very important purpose.

[lamarguerite]

Thanks Arianna. I just signed the petition.

The whole voting process is flawed by the media and the pollsters, both.

There is neither time nor space for reflection. Instead, we all get caught in a frenzy of gossips, opinions, and hype.

http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com