Because “Registered Voter” polls merely ask whomever is being polled, “Are you a registered voter ?” And then ask who they’re voting for. Half of registered voters and sometimes far more than that don’t actually vote in elections. If all of the registered voters voted, there would be more validity to the polling data. But even if there was, there remains the problem of voter by party balance. Most of these are way out of whack (meaning, usually overpolling of Dems and Independents and shorting of Republicans).
So basically, one, polling people where half or more aren’t going to vote can be dismissed out of hand. And, two, a biased poll for party balance is the second reason it can be dismissed.
These polls are done to explicitly depress (via psychological means) Republican voters into thinking, “Oh, no ! Voters are going Democrat. If Trump’s going to lose anyway, why bother voting ?” They’ve been pulling this crap for years, and the “polling” done for 2016 was ludicrously false, claiming in some instances that Hillary was leading by 15-20% in the popular vote nationally and that she’d sweep the Electoral College in a massive landslide. All lies.
The only kind of polls that can come remotely close to reality are LIKELY VOTER polls that are properly balanced for party participation. If it’s not ‘Likely’, you can dismiss it out of hand as being another fake poll.
Thank you for taking the time with a great explanation.
The thing here, you see the words “registered voter” and you think here’s someone who cared enough to register so you gotta know it’s legit.
Only I’m thinking a lot of these “registered” voters signed up when they got their driver’s license.