Do you answer polls when they call?

[CDiPrecision Gunworks]

and how do you answer them... I got one yesterday for the Dem side and i totally gave then bogus info,lol.. I wonder how skewed the polls really are by other doing the same thing.

[Monkeyleg]

I answer polls about products, but I've never been called for a political poll. My guess is that my voting record already shows that I vote Republican 99% of the time, so neither party needs to bother calling.

[ArfinGreebly]

This is a trick question, right?

Wouldn't this involve answering the phone from an unrecognized caller ID?

[Regolith]

I've been called several times by pollsters.  I usually refuse and hang up.

It's one of the things that makes me think that the polls may be somewhat worthless.  The calls are random, yes, but the people who are called self select by the virtue of the fact that they have a chance to refuse.  Those whose personality types tend to make them not want to talk to pollsters may tend to vote in a certain manner, while those who tend to actually talk to the pollsters may tend to vote in another.  The differences may be slight, but it'd probably be enough to skew the polls to one side or the other.

[209]

You might want to be careful answering OBAMA pollsters-

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/10/07/secret_service.html

Secret Service visits Lufkin woman after 'death threat' allegation from an Obama campaign volunteer

By JESSICA SAVAGE

The Lufkin Daily News

Monday, October 06, 2008

A Lufkin woman received a surprise visit from the Secret Service last week because of a "death threat" comment she reportedly made about Sen. Barack Obama to a campaign volunteer asking for her support of the presidential candidate.

Two federal agents arrived at Jessica Hughes' home Thursday to ask her if she said, "I will never support Obama and he will wind up dead on a hospital floor."

Hughes said her words were deliberately twisted by a volunteer who was apparently unhappy Hughes was rude during a phone conversation the two had. The Lufkin mother, a Republican, said she received a call on her cell phone Wednesday from a woman with the Obama Volunteers of Texarkana.
"She asked if I was an Obama supporter, to which I replied, 'No, I don't support him. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the state Senate to let little babies die in hospital closets; I think you should find something better to do with your time.' (And then) I hung up."

(Hughes is referring to a "born alive" Illinois bill that did not pass in the Illinois state Senate in 2005 and had previously been opposed by Obama because he said it undermined Roe v. Wade, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan organization. A federal version of the bill, which Obama said he would have supported, passed by unanimous consent and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002.)

Obama Campaign Communications for Texas director Josh Taylor declined to comment Monday, refusing to answer any questions and referring the matter to the Secret Service, which he said is conducting an investigation. A message left with a Secret Service agent in Houston was not immediately returned.

Hughes said she was surprised to see two Secret Service agents at her door, and upset to learn that the conversation she had with the volunteer apparently had not been recorded.

"I find it hard to believe that (campaign volunteers) don't tape these calls. They call people unsolicited and they aren't monitoring the calls or recording them? I think that is absolutely ridiculous," she said.

"I mean, how often must this happen — that someone is rude to a volunteer that they don't want to talk to?"

Hughes said she wants to file a countercomplaint against the volunteer.
"She has made a charge that will follow me the rest of my life," she said.
"I find that repugnant and violating — that some person got her undies in a bundle because she didn't like what I had to say."

Who knows what they'll allege! 

The two young ladies I sent packing the other day didn't even try that.  They weren't too happy with my calling OBAMA a Communist, but they finally came around to the idea that a no trespassing sign meant just that- even to liberal (useful) idiots spreading the new gospel.

[Tallpine]

The only poll calls that we've been getting is some "medical poll" that keeps calling back after being told NO. 

[Green Lantern]

I've been called a grand total of ONCE.  It was actually a few weeks ago, before they passed the Bailout.  HECK YEAH I answered every question!

[Waitone]

Actually you just fingered a growing problem.  Seems people are something other than fully truthful in their responses.  Seems to be a bigger problem with the right than the left.

[Perd Hapley]

This thread should be a poll.

I just hung up on a guy that called to poll me about some school bond issue or some such.  And then he called me back, apologizing that his phone cuts out sometimes.  I said, "No, that was me," and hung up again.   :rolleyes:

I WILL answer polls, but not if they take more than two minutes of my time, or concern issues I don't care about.

This thread proves my point that there is no predicting Mike's decision of what are political topics. 

[Chuck Dye]

I do not participate.  Usually, I'll run the caller through some variation on how I expect to be paid as a consultant.  If I am really annoyed, I'll do a verbal tap dance for as long as either I or the caller can stand it.  Paid call center cubicle trolls are on a calls per hour performance standard.  Wasting their time is punitive.

[Perd Hapley]

  If I am really annoyed, I'll do a verbal tap dance for as long as either I or the caller can stand it. 

I once spent ten minutes SCREAMING with murderous rage at a gas-company telephone jockey, about their screwed-up billing department.  I couldn't believe he didn't just hang up on me. 

(They kept sending me bills that indicated I had a credit on my account, then sending me ridiculously high bills later on.  The guy on the phone insisted they had never sent me any bills that indicated a positive balance. )