Where the Polls Went Wrong

Time Magazine ^ | Monday, Dec. 01, 1980 | John F. Stacks

[GilGil]

Reagan's landslide challenges the pulse-taker profession

For weeks before the presidential election, the gurus of public opinion polling were nearly unanimous in their findings. In survey after survey, they agreed that the coming choice between President Jimmy Carter and Challenger Ronald Reagan was "too close to call." A few points at most, they said, separated the two major contenders...

[GilGil]

This trikes me as a carbon copy of what is happening today in the sense that the media was trying to slant everything Carter's way. This is proof positive that polling can be 100% wrong.

[Steely Tom]

Yesterday's thread.

[bigbob]

Heard Rush’s monolog on this “delicious” bit today.

[uncbob]

With the disaster that Carter was it was mind boggling he ever was ahead in the polls -

[TruthWillWin]

He may not have ever really been ahead in the polls.

[JoeRed]

This is the most interesting part of the article:

“Before the election, only 7% of the blacks surveyed by New York Times-CBS News said they were going to vote for Reagan; Election Day exit polling showed that 14% had ac tually cast their ballots for the Californian. But when re-polled by New York Times-CBS News, only 6% of blacks admitted they had voted for Reagan.”

It illustrates that the post election “exit polls” are not reliable even if the sampling percentages accurately reflect the voter turnout. People lie to pollsters.