So again, as during every election from dog-catcher to President, we’re presented with cascades of statistics about what kind of people voted for whom, how much they earn, where they shop and how much they spend there, and what barn they were born in.
I look at those reports and think…huh?
The first question that always comes to my mind is who tells some snoop anything, much less the truth?
If I were still voting in person — which I don’t, and can’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would drive to a polling place and stand in line when the government will mail a ballot to you — the last thing on this earth I would do is say how I voted to someone who barged up and started asking nosy questions. Certainly I wouldn’t tell such a person how much I earn.
I respond to nosiness like this in two ways: either by declining to answer or by lying. And I’ll bet a fair number of other folks do the same.
If I have to come up with something for the privilege of getting a fair price on groceries, I’ll emit disinformation — Safeway, for example, thinks I’m a deceased German shepherd whose phone number happens to belong to the Phoenix Safeway corporate offices. Usually, though, I’ll shop somewhere else or decline the “price cuts” on offer — which amount to another way to raise prices and then claim they’re giving you something “on sale” when they charge the ordinary retail price.
Other times, I simply say, “I’m sorry, I don’t share my [telephone number, e-mail address, name of my first-born child] with retailers.”
If a pollster walked up to me outside a voting place, I would tell him to take a flying eff at the moon. There is no way I would answer questions like who did I vote for, what is my party affiliation, and how much do I earn.
Surely, the nature of the folks who would answer questions like this must skew poll results.
Would you answer any such questions? Truthfully?
Well, I seem to remember from statistics class that when your population size is big enough, you tend to weed out a lot of this type of potential effect. Also, I think they generally have pretty big margins of error.
Yeah, I recall that, too. Also recall thinking that the result would have to be a pretty blurry picture: what you’d be doing is fuzzing the results by adding a lot of extra data.
Question is, too: how large a sample IS the group who vote in X or Y election, really?
Do the people who vote in the actual election necessarily vote in the primary? We know that our system essentially devalues an individual vote at the primary level. It’s pretty well decided by the pols at this stage, in a way. I imagine a lot of people think voting in the primary is pointless. I do it just to register a squawk of some sort, no matter how faintly it’s heard.
And then, polling people who are walking away from a voting place misses everyone who votes by mail. That number is growing, as more people realize they can avail themselves of a huge convenience. The only way they can ask you who you voted for if you use a mail-in ballot is by calling you on the phone, and a LOT of people are like me: they don’t answer the phone if they don’t know who’s on the other end. And again, if someone asks me an impertinent question, I tell them it’s none of their business. And I consider “who did you vote for” to be none of some stranger’s business.
I’ve never been approached by a pollster as I was leaving a voting place and I don’t know anyone who’s ever been asked such questions under those circumstances. Maybe things are done differently in the south or in Arkansas, at least.
As to how I’d answer, I would politely decline. Now if they wanted to PAY me to answer nosy questions, I might be more inclined to co-operate. ;o)
I’ve never been approached by a pollster, either. Until I moved to CA, I always voted in person. While it is possible to request an absentee ballot in IL, it’s positioned as something for people who are deployed overseas or have a disability that prevents them from getting to the polls. And you have to apply for a ballot by mail before every election, too.
Here in CA, I was enrolled with vote by mail *by default* when I got my driver’s license. My voting packet had clear instructions, and I had been separately mailed both a State and County pamphlet with information on the ballot measures, statements from candidates, etc. I felt more informed than I have ever been in Chicago. Amazing.
As for talking to pollsters, yeah, I’d do that. I keep some very private information close to the chest (SSN, some medical stuff), but otherwise I don’t care to try to maintain my “privacy.” Very little of life is “private” these days.
By default! Boyoboy, that IS nice. Here you have to weasel your way in. And also here the Republican-dominated elections commission works very, very hard to disqualify as many absentee ballots as possible, since a large proportion of them come from students, military members, and people taking disability benefits who would be likely to vote Democratic. They’ve passed a law making it illegal for ANYONE to carry a sealed absentee ballot for a friend or family member to the post office. In other words, if your mom is disabled, to mail her absentee ballot you have to wrestle her into the car and physically take her to the post office to place her ballot in the mail!
How exactly anyone would know escapes me: there’s no requirement for you to show your driver’s license to a postal employee. Not that you could: it could take upwards of an hour of standing in line if you had to carry your ballot into the PO and hand it over to an employee who checked your ID: https://funny-about-money.com/wannabe-customer-to-usps-phbtthhphtbbb/