Reply #16: I was a Zogby pollster when I lived in Utica.

[Lyric]

I witnessed his system. I worked for the man. I get really tired of the constant bullshit accusations around here that there's something inherently corrupt about Zogby. The people working at his call center on Genessee Street are mostly good New York liberals, not right-wing hacks. We worked our asses off to get good data.

You want better results? Then tell the liberal folks in California to stop hanging up on us. The fact is that the people who were most willing to take the time out of their day and answer our poll questions were stay-at-home Moms in Orange County, and you can guess what kind of answers we got from them. We can't pick and choose by ideology during a random poll--we get a set number of California responses assigned, and if conservatives are more likely than liberals to answer poll questions, there's nothing we can do about that. We aren't allowed to stray from the script, so I couldn't say "Hey busy California liberal--this poll is the kind of poll that shows up on TV and gauges the political nuance of the nation, so you might want to think twice before telling me that you don't have time for this 'crap' and hanging up."

Honestly, ALL pollsters have this issue. You wouldn't believe how important the voices of young California professionals are--a group that definitely leans left. And yet, they are the LEAST likely to complete a poll. It's frustrating as hell. If you've ever wondered why so many polls seem to under-represent liberal voices, well, that's one reason why.

I know that people HERE would always answer polls, but if we could convince our less-politically-obsessed liberal friends and family members of how important these polls are, all polling data would be a lot more accurate.

This is one reason why I, personally, never take nationwide polls at face value. I always add a few points to the liberal side when I'm considering anything that includes West Coast data. Regional polls of the Northeast are probably the MOST accurate overall, because those people have a greater sense of political duty and are more likely to answer polls in general no matter what their political orientation.