Smarter Than They Think--How the Electorate Dupes Pollsters

A Pew poll released over the weekend shows a significant last-minute tightening of the race for the control of Congress, with Republicans making significant gains in the past few days. The results provoked one House Democrat to muse, 'It is making me nervous.'

The fact is that pollsters have been regularly shown to be in error over the past 3 elections. Pollsters miscalculated the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections, and the 2002 midterm Congressional elections. The 2002 races proved to be the most problematic of all for most pollsters, who predicted gains in both the House and Senate for the Democrats. The opposite turned out to be true.

A pattern is definitely developing among the electorate. They have wised up. Fed up with the practice of pundits, pollsters, and network news talking heads projecting winners based upon 'exit polls,' the voters have begun giving false information to those conducting the polls.

In short, voters who believe in the privacy of the individual ballot and the in the citizens having the last word after the votes are counted has led to the deliberate and calculated misleading of pollsters by the public. Yes, they lie about who they voted for.

This was brought home to me several weeks ago when I was having lunch with several colleagues. As we sat in an open area where conversation could occur with other customers from every conceivable walk of life, more than one admitted to having lied to a pollster. Either by phone or during an exit poll these persons admitted to withholding the truth about the nature of their votes.

When pressed as to the motivation, the reasons were similar. 'I am sick and tired of them calling an election before the polls close. What better way to stop it than to make them look like a bunch of asses?' 'It is none of their business who I voted for. If they are dumb enough to ask, then they are dumb enough to believe a lie.'

My favorite answer was this one--'I want them all fooled. They think they know so much. So I figure I can shoot them a bunch of crap, and if enough others do it, then they think the election is going one way when it is actually going another, the suckers!'

There you have it. Who said that people in the heartland are clueless? Believe me, they know the score. They have figured out how to dupe the Press.

I must admit I am impressed. Leave it to American ingenuity.