One of the consequences of living in a swing state seems to be you get polled a lot. I’ve had five robopolls asking who I am voting for in the Presidential election in the last week. So far I’ve told the truth (not happy with Obama’s performance as President, definitely will vote for him, don’t like Romney at all & think he’s bad for the economy, I’m a liberal Democrat of a certain age).
But increasingly as I push the same boring buttons on my phone I feel the temptation to offer tactical answers. The problem, is, I can’t figure out how to shade my answers: Would it help to say I am a Republican who hates Romney? To say I’m older or younger? Would false answers be more likely to mess up the Romney or Obama decisions on how to spend their ad dollars? Do I want Romney to look less popular with his base than he is at the risk of Team Obama getting overconfident?
Of all the polls I’ve gotten this week only one was at all interesting. In addition to the usual demographic questions it asked if I was a veteran, and then what religion I was. The choices included Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical Christian [and there I was thinking that Evangelical Christians were Protestants], Jewish, Muslim, and Mormon. I picked Jewish. Then it asked me how often I go to church….
Meanwhile, regular reader Gustavo Sardina sends in the following account of a push poll he received.
Things to know (that the pollsters probably already knew), I am a registered republican, vote in every election, and live in Coral Gables.
It seems to be a push poll for Erik Fresen (my FL. House Rep.) targeted against his primary opponent Amory Bodin and went something like this:
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