Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Joe27

The link below is a time machine going back to October 2004 when the maggot infected mediots and their knee pad pollsters were declaring Kerry would be president:

http://search.comcast.net/?cat=web&con=betac&form_submit=1&q=Kerry+ahead+of+Bush+in+polls&top_SearchSubmit=

They were wrong then and now!


159 posted on 10/02/2012 6:39:36 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (We are the 53%, who pay taxes and keep this country going inspite of the 47% rat moochers!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Grampa Dave
Even back in those days Pew Research says pollsters were dealing with less than 20% responses and 80% non responsive non responses.

There's nothing terribly statistically valid when 80% of those you sample in an opinion or marketing survey never give you a response.

There's an entire science behind replacement of one sample with another ~ which is particularly important in manufacturering quality control. You don't just grab something at the end of the line to make up for the designated samples you missed in the process. Unfortunately, when pollsters simply keep polling until they get enough samples to give them a reasonably high confidence level from as few as possible number of samples, they end up violating all those principles ~ the result is G.A.R.B.A.G.E.

Building a body of semi-pro respondents probably makes sense ~ provided they are always available ~ and I don't mean a response group ~ those things are just too small, and putting all the folks in the same sitting leads them to flirt with each other and minds wander (e.g.'Wow she's stacked') ~ not good at all.

Alas, now that we're down to 9% actually having input to your typical poll these days it's time for a new approach.

163 posted on 10/02/2012 7:16:25 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 159 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson