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From www.electoral-vote.com : I was afraid this was going to happen sooner or later and it has now happened. I have to make a judgment call on a firm that engages in push polling. In case you haven't followed this issue, push polling is where the pollster (on instructions from the client) asks a very slanted question in order to elicit the desired answer so the pollster can announce how well the client is doing. Questions like "Do you support John Kerry even though he lied about getting medals in Vietnam?" or "Do you support George Bush even though he deserted the National Guard during war time?" fall in this category. Legitimate pollsters would never ask such questions. Instead they might ask "Do you believe John Kerry earned his medals in Vietnam?" or "Do you believe George Bush fulfilled his duties in the National Guard?". Those are questions designed to determine public opinion, not create it.
Why does this come up now? Moore Information (R) just released a poll showing Bush 9% ahead in Iowa, a state he has never led in before and which the current poll (taken 5 days before Moore's poll) puts Bush 4% behind. On its own merits, this is implausible, but in the absence of other evidence, I would accept it, as I accepted Gallup's poll showing Bush 14% ahead in Missouri (even though I don't believe it for a second) due to Gallup's reputation. Even Gallup can make a mistake, but they are not dishonest. With Moore Information, the situation is different. Moore was recently caught doing push polling, as reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It is ok for a pollster to work for one side or the other as long as they do honest polls (Scott Rasmussen is a Republican but I have no reason to question his numbers, for example). But Moore has crossed the line and got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. I asked the president of Moore Information for his side of the story but he didn't respond. Henceforth I will not use any Moore Information polls. If anyone has documented evidence of other pollsters doing push polls, please let me know.
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