Nobody has landlines anymore

[brentwoodgirl]

I cuoldn't get past the bolded:

Originally Posted by gtc08

This is something interesting i havent thought about it. The older demo who are going romney are more likely to have landlines only, compared to many younger-middle aged who use cell phones only. These polls only call landline numbers and underrepresent cell phone users(more likely obama supporters).

Oct. 14: Breaking the State-National Poll Stalemate - NYTimes.com

I'm 36 and have a landline, does that mean I'm in the "older" demographic?

I'll let my 39 year old husband know that he is postively ancient.

[emcee squared]

Originally Posted by gtc08

This is something interesting i havent thought about it. The older demo who are going romney are more likely to have landlines only, compared to many younger-middle aged who use cell phones only. These polls only call landline numbers and underrepresent cell phone users(more likely obama supporters).

Oct. 14: Breaking the State-National Poll Stalemate - NYTimes.com

Polling is flawed like that. There are so many factors that come into play when doing phone polls.

If you call during the day -- maybe you only reach unemployed people.
If you call someone with caller ID -- maybe they wont answer unknown numbers.

Like you said, not everyone has a landline, so you are not reaching the entire population.

Internet polls are just as bad. If you're poor you might not be able to afford the internet, thereby excluding you from the poll. There are many, many more examples.