"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

voting
September 20, 2004 - 5:38 pm

the polls, any poll you see, is really done one of two ways. the first is online and the second is by phone.

by phone is far and away the most common. up to recently, it's been the best way to get opinions from a good mix of people.

however, pollsters don't call cell phones. this means that people like myself will never be called. i havn't had a landline in about four years.

this means the sample of people pollsters are calling is NOT representative of the whole.

also, people are using VoIP programs like Vontage (spelling?). this allows someone who lives in, say, california to have an area code for, say, delaware. why do this? perhaps for business reason or for family reasons - it doesn't matter, people do it.

this means if that person gets called his/her vote will get counted in delaware, not california and again.. the poll is flawed.

overall, the poll may still show the correct result, but it's flawed nonetheless.

90% of the above info comes from reading the site, www.electoral-votes.com where the webmaster openly admits the polls are flawed, but there's nothing better to go on.

the webmaster also says that the people most likely to not have a landline and/or to use VoIP are people who are most likely to support kerry. i've no idea how this is known.. so that may well mean that bush is leading in lots of states with a 1 to 5 percent lead that's really much tighter.

and on a final note, thanks for the two ideas on places to move. i shall look into them.