Lies, Damned Lies, and Political Polls

I received a phone call today from an unnamed polling organization, asking if I would have ten to twenty minutes to take part in a survey.  I obliged, and verified that, despite my advanced age, I was indeed the youngest male in the household.  (First red flag:  why did they want the youngest male?)

The first question gave me a laundry list of hot topics, and asked me to identify which I thought was most important.  Like most people these days, I chose health care.  That led me into a very long series of questions about - what else - health care.  It all seemed pretty good until we hit a question that began with something like "Many people feel that major provisions of the Affordable Care Act will be repealed."  The pollster then proceeded to give a list of options for replacing those provisions that apparently were (in someone's mind) destined to be repealed.  I responded by objecting to the question and the way it was framed; how could I possibly choose an alternative to a law I believe should not and will not be repealed?  Of course, that response was not an option.  The poor, innocent caller told me that she could only mark down "Don't Know" or "Refused."  Big red flag.

Unfortunately, this was only the first of many loaded questions in the survey, and I began to realize that this poll was being run by folks who have a strong political agenda.  It was an agenda that ran diametrically opposed to my philosophy.  More importantly, the questions seemed designed to elicit predetermined results.

Well that really scared me.  If you haven't already realized it by reading my previous blog posts, I believe strongly in basing opinions on facts.  It's fine with me if other folks have an opinion that's different from mine, but I can't stand it when that opinion is grounded in a lie.

Adam Geller
of National Research, Inc.

So I did what any twenty-first century adult would do - I Googled the phone number that showed up on my caller ID.  Turns out the pollster was calling from National Research, Inc., which is a notoriously conservative Republican organization headed up by Adam Geller, best known as the pollster for Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey.  That didn't surprise me.  What blew me away, however, I found right out there on the home page of National Research's own website.  Here it is, in their own words:

"Opinion measurement helps you understand your audience. Opinion management helps you win campaigns, trials and market share. National Research Inc. is in the opinion management business.

You need to ask the right questions. You need to survey the right audience. And you need to make sure you are using the results to your maximum benefit. We've got you covered."

Call me crazy, but I think this "opinion polling" organization is telling us that it doesn't really deal with trying to find out what opinions people actually hold - their business is to manipulate the surveys to further the interests of their clients.

And now the scary part.  In a few days, the results of this "poll" will be made public somewhere.  Maybe on Fox News, or by the Romney campaign, or perhaps on a commercial produced by some right-wing super-PAC devoted to tearing down the Obama administration.  Wherever it surfaces, I feel very confident that, even with my answers tallied in with the rest, it won't accurately reflect the way I tried to answer the loaded questions.  

People hear poll results, and they assume that they reflect the truth.  This one won't.  I think the American people deserve better than this when faced with the task of casting votes that will set the direction of the country for the next four years.  That just makes sense to me.  How about you?

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