POLLS---Do They Lead Or Follow ?

"I also think there should be fewer polls aired on media airways. These polls may sway our opinion to a more popular candidate instead of the best candidate." IL

"The most disgusting part, in the midst of all that chaos, was that the media seemed not to know its own strength. The television blurted out facts and figures daily; the people watched expectantly to see which candidate was on top. The problem with that was that the public assumed that the man with the best total score was the best choice, and that is not what choice is about." OH

"But do the polls result (in) change when they are made public? I believe that they do. The bandwagon effect is the major cause of this. The public wants to be associated with a winning team, so they will change their votes to be associated with this winning combination." IN

"A local resident admitted, 'The only reason I voted for some candidates on election day is simply because that person was the one who was winning in the polls before I left to vote.' " IL

"They should not be able to use polls as a means of determining who is in the lead." TN

"Polls are cheaper to produce than actual informative stories, and the media contends that the public is not interested in anything else." KS

"Many readers of opinion polls come away with mixed feelings. The media, in trying to give the public an idea of the standings of popular candidates, may only confuse voters. . . Instead of reading polls, voters should read other material on the candidates and decide for themselves who to vote for." NE

"The use of sample surveys and election polls by the news media do not help voters assess the qualifications of the candidates. Figures do not tell if candidates are competent. Election polls are like editorials. They are public opinions and they tend to be biased. In the recent election, the media gave election polls extensive coverage, and some voters used these polls as their basis for their decision." CA

"Polls could possibly be misrepresentation of what the American voters want. Polls are in the first place, only a limited survey of subscribers taken in one day after an event. Voters will sometimes see which candidate the consensus of Americans are supposedly voting for, and will take a more critical look at one candidate's issues and ignore others. These polls could most definitely be a misrepresentation of American voters and could be wrong. . . polls should take into consideration political rallies, conventions, or poor television coverage and they should print largely what region the poll was taken in and a short description of their polling consensus." OK

"A poll often becomes a source of misinformation rather than insight into what's happening." WI

"The media needs to categorize lesser known candidates under important information, and polls under unimportant information." CA

"For instance, if the media is continually polling the same group of people the results will turn out the same and viewers will think these opinions are from a wide variety of people. This sort of deception is what the media specializes in." TX

"Among the many polls discussed during the vote counting, one that stuck out in my mind was about the category - white protestants in Florida. I do not think this is worth reporting; it is such a small group of people." PA

"The USA Today CNN Gallup Poll telephoned 1,000 registered voters considered to be likely to vote. They added that there was an error margin of 3 percent. It does not mention, however, where the voters live. If the particular voters were a majority of Democrats, the poll would tend to favor Bill Clinton, and would not be as accurate as it may appear. In the chart of the poll, USA Today compares the results of that poll to an earlier poll. Clinton's percent decreased by 7 percent. Bush's percent also decreased but only by 3 percent. Perot's percent, however, increased by 8 percent. Would the decrease in Clinton's lead be an accurate reading? We don't know if the voters were the same as before or not. If the voters were the same, it may be a true indication of the success of Perot's campaign. However, if they were different voters each time, then the poll may not show how the public's opinion has changed." PA

"Poll results often give information that is misinterpreted. The outcome of the polls depends on who is asked and how the questions are asked." OH

"The media gave information such as who was ahead and who was behind but most of the media source that did the polling failed to disclose the information on how they did the polls. The public is not informed of how many people, where polled, or their political party. It could have been a poll of ten Democrats or of ten Republicans. The public just assumes that it's a random sample of people from different parties. " OK

"The statistics found in polls often vary and are very undependable." CA

"In 1936 a poll conducted by the Literacy Digest incorrectly determined that the Republican candidate, Alf Landon, would win the U. S. presidential election. . . In the 1946 election, most polls mistakenly predicted a victory for the Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey, over President Harry S. Truman. . . Since 1948 techniques of public opinion research and polling have improved considerably. Efforts are now made to select respondents without bias, to improve the quality of questionnaires, and to train reliable interviewers." MI

"They (voters) were continually told of the media's opinion of which candidate was leading in the polls. This led to many persons deciding not to vote because they felt it would not make a difference." IL

"By telling the entire nation who is ahead, the people begin to feel that maybe because everybody else is voting for this candidate, I should as well. I am sure that there are many registered voters in America that decide on their vote because they feel the majority cannot be wrong." CA

"There hasn't been a day in which there isn't a new poll released telling the public who we think is going to win the election. . . In the two months before the election, Bill Clinton led both incumbent President George Bush and independent Ross Perot in the polls by 10 to 15 percentage points. . . This gave voters the impression that Bill Clinton would win the election in a landslide." MD

". . . the media overdosed on polls, it seemed that every day a new one was out." PA

"Who will vote for Ross Perot if the media keeps telling us he cannot win? For that matter, why bother voting for Bush when everyone knows Clinton is up by 10 points?" IL

"The results of the polls usually show the candidate chosen by the media in the lead. If the polls do not show what the media would like, then they are sometimes discarded. (According to Doris Graber, author of Mass Media American Politics) 'Gallup Poll ratings in early February that gave Carter only five percent of the national vote were ignored.' I believe they ignored the poll because they wanted the public to believe that Carter was the most popular candidate. This causes a portion of the voters to believe that the candidate with the best outcome on the polls is the candidate most favored by the voting public." NY

"Constant concentration on who is ahead in the polls limits the real choice of American voters and violates the democracy and integrity of the electoral process because the voters are not getting the real facts on the issues." MA

"Polls can help focus attention on questions concerning the public and stimulate discussion of them, or polls can shape the opinions they are supposed to measure...They are helpful to the candidates in an election, but to the majority of the public, polls offer no benefits and are merely interesting. When the public is accurately informed on the issues and candidates in an election, the question of who comes out on top will take care of itself." MN