The Pros And Cons Of Polling

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Hacibey Catalbasoglu Mrs. Joanne Knight AP Language and Composition April 24, 2014 “Polling and its Authenticity” Polling has become an integral part of the United States election process. The media, as well as the voting population, take into great consideration the results of various political polls. But are these polls inaccurate? Has the United States been relying on the inaccurate data of public polling? The answer is, yes. Political polling, like abortion and gun control, is a hot-button issue in the United States. Many people believe that political polls incorrectly portray the public’s opinion on a certain topic, which may also have a detrimental effect on a candidate running for office. As Statesman Benjamin Disraeli famously said, “if you torture data long enough, they’ll admit to anything” (Source B). Therefore, political polls, without a doubt, do not accurately represent the correct views of a population. Meaning, political polls are inaccurate and portray false information. Imagine having the power to change someone’s opinion on a poll by merely reordering the questions. Now stop imagining because it is real, and it is called Order Bias. Order Bias, by definition is, a skewing of results caused by the order in which questions are placed in a survey. Moreover, Pollsters have learned that responses to emotional…show more content…
Pollsters have so much power that they can bend the wording and answers of the pollee’s to their own benefit. Because of this, poll data is unreliable. As historian Andrew Lang famously once said, “pollsters use poll data as a drunken man uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination” (Source B). What Andrew was trying to show was that pollsters use polls for their own benefit, not for the true purpose of informing the public. Never fall victim to inaccurate and false polls. Never make the mistake of supporting the drunken
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