[Morgan in Denver]

It's just a thought. I put it out here for thought and comments. It does seem possible this is a piece of the puzzle on why the pollsters keep skewing polls with misleading results.

Put it into terms you have intimate knowledge of. You call on someone to buy rods to resell. You can tell them, buy more and you'll make more money on your investment. If they make more money, you're a hero. If they don't you can claim the market was down, consumer confidence was down, the markets changed None of which proves you were wrong in your advice.

But, if you ask them to buy even though the market is down, confidence is down, etc, why would they buy more inventory?

Okay, so imagine you own a polling company. All the buyers are liberal and you are supposed to provide them with poll results.  Do you tell them the truth?  Do you hedge what you say so they buy, or buy more, or buy again?  Would you tell them their candidate is toast or let them think they are so close to winning that a few more donations would turn it around?

I don't know but it sure makes one consider the various options.

[MOgirl]

Hello,

Very good and interesting point! I think that one reason that the polls are the way they are is to discourage conservative/independent voters from even going. But, your idea that there is a fund-raising component to the fraud (and yep ~ that is what I think most polls are!) makes alot of sense. Didn't I just read last week that the Reps have about a 4 to 1 advantage over the Dems on available cash to spend this election year??
Glad to be here, MOgirl

[rodguy911]

It's probably/undoubtedly more complex than that but that could very well be an integral part of today's polling.

[Seattle Conservative]

It definitely makes sense especially considering we know the following about Dim polls and pollsters:

1. they ask and phrase questions to get the results they want (e.g., Bush bad Dims good).

2. they often poll adults or registered voters rather than likely voters

3. they often poll on weekends, when its been shown that more Dims than Pubbies are home

4. they usually over-sample Dims and Ind to Pubbies

5. they often poll urban areas (where people tend to be more liberal), rather than rural areas - -where people tend to be more conservative and are usually out working in the yard, on the farm, etc.

and, I don't know how many need to be polled to get a good sampling, but some of the polls I've seen are between 6-700 or so folks - is that enough (especially given the above) for a good, true sampling?

I also read something in the last couple of weeks that made sense to me (my words here): With the do not call lists and more people w cell phones (sometimes instead of land lines) does that reduce the number of people available to be polled (especially conservatives)? IIRC it could be up to a 5% difference in the poll results.