Polling In America

As we head into another Presidential Election cycle, polls are getting more coverage. Daily polls, weekly polls and monthly polls on candidates, approval ratings, issues, etc. Newspapers have them, cable networks and radio stations have them and of course pollsters have them. These polls are done by age groups, regions of the country, sex and just about every demographic you can imagine. And sadly, many people believe them or count on them to help make critical decisions.

But eventually we need to ask the question, who are these people polling? Landlines are still in existence but who in fact uses them? What's that demographic? Once we get past those questions we're faced with others. Who answers 'Unknown Caller' calls on cell phones these days? That again is probably a pretty specific demographic. As really good and reliable call blocking is developed and used, who is left to poll or what new method is used?

Perhaps, since the samples are usually pretty small, the pollsters are just sending people out to survey the people in their offices, office buildings or neighborhoods. I have no idea, but I do know that many people seem to depend on this information and nobody can really decipher how it's being done in today's tech centered world. Is it possible that there really aren't any poll results? That would explain a lot.