Comments on: How Reliable Are The Latest Swing State Polls? http://donklephant.com/2008/06/27/how-reliable-are-the-latest-swing-state-polls/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:53:41 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Tully http://donklephant.com/2008/06/27/how-reliable-are-the-latest-swing-state-polls/comment-page-1/#comment-410637 Tully Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:26:00 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6156#comment-410637 Oh, and Public Policy Polling is a partisan-oriented firm (D) that uses a completely automated methodology, which makes their results somewhat questionable as to reliability, especially during primaries. Not because they're necessarily attempting to slant their polls, mind you, but because their focus is often on looking for "spin factors" for primary candidates to utilize. Oh, and Public Policy Polling is a partisan-oriented firm (D) that uses a completely automated methodology, which makes their results somewhat questionable as to reliability, especially during primaries. Not because they’re necessarily attempting to slant their polls, mind you, but because their focus is often on looking for “spin factors” for primary candidates to utilize.

]]> By: Tully http://donklephant.com/2008/06/27/how-reliable-are-the-latest-swing-state-polls/comment-page-1/#comment-410636 Tully Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:19:17 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6156#comment-410636 <i>to dismiss polling institutions like SurveyUSA, Quinnipiac and Public Policy Polling as crappy local polling companies just trying to get some attention, dismisses a lot of hard work.</i> It isn't how hard you work, it's the quality of the work you produce. The larger national firms go to great lengths to (attempt to) get representative sampling and in-depth response. State-level polling generally doesn't, and is subject to MUCH greater sampling errors and related design flaws. And yes, Quinnipiac is a good example, despite their reputation. QPI is an academic polling service that is part of a mid-sized private university and uses student interveiwers. Their public releases almost never include the cross-tab data required to check for validity. "Trust us." Heh. to dismiss polling institutions like SurveyUSA, Quinnipiac and Public Policy Polling as crappy local polling companies just trying to get some attention, dismisses a lot of hard work.

It isn’t how hard you work, it’s the quality of the work you produce. The larger national firms go to great lengths to (attempt to) get representative sampling and in-depth response. State-level polling generally doesn’t, and is subject to MUCH greater sampling errors and related design flaws.

And yes, Quinnipiac is a good example, despite their reputation. QPI is an academic polling service that is part of a mid-sized private university and uses student interveiwers. Their public releases almost never include the cross-tab data required to check for validity. “Trust us.” Heh.

]]> By: Avinash_Tyagi http://donklephant.com/2008/06/27/how-reliable-are-the-latest-swing-state-polls/comment-page-1/#comment-410615 Avinash_Tyagi Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:17:29 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6156#comment-410615 The MSM wants this race to be close and Obama having a large lead is not good for them, they want it to be like a te all the way to november The MSM wants this race to be close and Obama having a large lead is not good for them, they want it to be like a te all the way to november

]]>