People don’t respond to polls due to caller ID on cell phones, if I don’t know the number I don’t answer
I was polled by PEWWWW for 2016 election. They didn’t call - instead they sent me a letter with $1 enclosed. The letter had me log-on and then go through their questions (obviously I didn’t have to participate). At the end they offered me another $20 due to me being a ‘special category’ based on an answer I gave them...so I did those questions too.
Worked out fine, and a good way to poll. So, when you hear of an Internet Poll, there’s more to it than, say, a Drudge ‘vote’. They choose you, probably based on more information than they ever had with calling. So the polling can be better...but they still missed Trump, big-time.
As to answering strange calls, I’m with you. I keep getting calls for some kind of ‘air bag recall’ for my car, even though I removed them years ago. Annoying as hell, so I never answer.