How do you feel about lying to pollsters?

Personally, I have not answered any of the numerous texts that have begged me to tell them whom I’m voting for. I think polls are dangerous.

Serious question, because I’m baffled: what do you think you’re accomplishing by lying?

I just don’t respond. It’s none of their business and I agree that polls are dangerous.

Ordinarily, I’d say people don’t really have a moral duty to be truthful to pollsters.

But this seems like a pretty important one, and one where one side can be expected to repeat their tactic of lying that there was voter fraud, so I wouldn’t think to lie . . .

I don’t answer the phone if I don’t know who’s calling. My phone has been ringing a lot in the past few days and I haven’t answered, and they haven’t left any messages.

As for the question, I feel it’s your right to lie if you want to.

Why lie??

I’m fine with lying to them. If they asked how I was registered I might lie to tell the truth. I’m currently registered Republican, but I am a Democrat. I stayed a Republican so hopefully the Republican party will see Republicans must be voting for the Democrats. I am not the only one I know doing this. I originally changed party to vote for Nikki in the primary. Trying to keep Trump from winning the primary.

They pollsters ask things like the most important issues to you, and it makes me a little queasy that they alter their schtick based on polls rather than what they might really believe or think needs to be done in the country. Now, this late in the game, I guess they are just asking who you voted for. Seems like a waste of time and money to call today. It’s done. Let’s see what happens.

I haven’t answered any political pollsters calling me this political season. I worry they might be fakes, some lunatic wanting to target people. That’s my paranoia.

Why lie? To screw with republicans who might read supportive answers as optimism, and then have their hopes shattered when the truth of a democratic victory comes out.

@elbanditoroso That sounds really stupid. You’ll also depress Democrats.

@elbanditoroso Knowing the current state of the MAGA crowd, when they lose they will be saying polls said we were way ahead, the voting machines are changing votes, the Democrats cheated.

I have one friend messaging me with what she feels are evidence of voting problems. She’s a Libertarian. So far she has sent me three examples over the last week.

I don’t answer my phone for strange numbers, nor response to texts. But I also don’t pay attention to polls because they often don’t get a true sampling of voters. For instance, most young people do not answer their phones for a strange number. Whereas an older person at home might be prone to picking up the phone for every call, especially if they don’t have caller ID.

I answer truthfully.

A good pollster puts that possiblity into their statistical models.

In Germany, it’s illegal to publish results of post-voting interviews until after the polls close. I didn’t know this until quite recently, but it makes a lot of sense to me now. Humans love to be on the winning side, so some might change their vote last minute. Also, when there are reports of a supposed clear winner early on, many voters would probably decide to not bother (believing their vote won’t count).

So, if a pollster contacted me on election day, I’m pretty sure I’d decline to answer.

I haven’t been polled.

If I was to lie, I’d tell a pollster that I’m voting for Me.

If lots of people did this, perhaps the results would indicate something like this:

Trump 30%
Me 70%

Then whoever was announcing the results would think that they’ve won the election! ;-p

@elbanditoroso omg that is so childish.

Either childish or fiendishly brilliant.

Just do it!

I remember doing one, when GWB was in office. I told them, skip the questions and write this down; “The American people should drag Bush AND Cheney from the Whitehouse and hang them there for future presidents to see what happens to people who would use the office to start war*s* and profit from them.”
They thanked me for my time, and hung up. I have no idea, what they put down for me…

I actually did answer one at my parent’s house the other day. They wanted to know how I felt about Trump.
I took a DEEP breath and was about to let ‘em have it, when I decided that I wasn’t going to say anything stupid like that, after the assassination attempt.

How do I feel about lying to them? 00 FUX GVN….

@elbanditoroso Well, it wasn’t the latter.

I think I am going to change my answer. The Democrats need to really understand why they are losing, and lying will work against that. I think maybe the polling either isn’t being done well or can’t work like it used to because of who is willing to answer phone calls and question. I also think the Democrats are not open enough to people within their own ranks and from outside of the party telling them how things sound and look.

I have no feelings about this. I don’t talk to sales, political, etc.. callers, other than to perhaps hold the phone over by the TV speaker and turn up the volume.

@JLeslie I think I can answer the question for you. The why democrats are losing part anyway. They have ignored or outright alienated a couple large groups of people. That’s the #1 reason. If you can’t identify who they are, then this will repeat until they figure it out and do something positive about it. The left was also clueless because of the social stigma that they put on voting a certain way. People say they vote one way and quietly vote the other to keep the peace with their more liberal friends and family. This certainly includes lying to pollsters when others are in earshot. I can reference the earlier thread where people on this very forum said they would divorce their spouse if they voted one way. People on the left have been more than a little vocal about this.

@Blackwater_Park I wasn’t asking, I think they have sucked at listening to people inside the party and out. I agree they alienate people. I think Harris was trying to correct that, her rallies were, but the problem was she wasn’t good in interviews, not good at answering Q’s about policy. A lot of Dems had confirmation bias and amnesia regarding her town halls and interviews, but Independents and Republicans will dwell on her bad answers.

The Dems in the last two weeks were reminding women their vote is secret.

@JLeslie “I think Harris was trying to correct that” I did not get that impression, I saw her pay lip service to it. If you can’t convince me you’re sincere, I’m tuning out. I’m not sure she even knew what her policy was. True or not, others clearly saw it that way too.

^It’s tough, because she only had 3 months, and was likely at the will of a stupid democratic party. I didn’t dislike Harris, but I only knew her as a smiling person, who did come off less than ideal in the interviews she did do.
I understand not supporting Harris, I can’t understand that rationalizing voting for Trump though. Which is what, I think I’m hearing from many…

@MrGrimm888 The democratic party did not hear the shot across the bow when people elected Trump in 2016. This time, people are fed up and would sink the ship before letting it stray too far in the wrong direction. It’s a vocal minority who are enthusiastic about Trump. In hindsight, it’s easy to see that Trump’s election is more of a failure of the DNC to deliver after they were handed the keys back in 2020. They have done nothing for the economy, healthcare, immigration, geopolitics etc etc… The center-leaning swing vote determines the majority vote. They don’t have an anchoring issue that keeps them on one side of the aisle. All other issues aside, it’s always the economy that ultimately determines elections. If the economy sucks, and people feel squeezed they’ll defect if they think nothing is being done to help them. You can set your watch by this.

I’ve been reading about it in the past day, and watching the news analyzing it and they say Trump did way better with Latinos than Biden last election or Trump 2016. The reason, besides that he campaigned in areas like the Bronx, is that the Hispanics that are here were not given free hotels/housing, free medical insurance, restaurant food,, services, which the migrants have been and it pisses the resident Hispanics off, and they want to see the tide of immigration stopped. That’s in addition to many others wanting to see the tide of immigration stopped, and seeing Biden open the floodgates overnight and do nothing to close them. Even his legislation would still allow 7000 per day to enter. Crime rates in NYC are up. Just in my area (an affluent rural area north of NYC), schools were on lockdown last week because someone murdered his girlfriend’s son. The son was a teenager. I think the mom (girlfriend) and her other son were shot too. The murderer was on the run, which was why the schools were on lockdown, and the guy was a migrant who would have been in jail if not for the cashless bail of the County he had committed his previous offenses in.

Thought experiment: Two years from now and a poll is about political parties support; Trump and GOP censors it and anything that casts the GOP in a bad light ?

@Blackwater_Park Harris consistently said she wants to hear all opinions, will be a president for everyone even people who didn’t vote for her. She had all sorts of positive messages of unity and trying to not be so adversarial.

I think she wasn’t strong on explaining policy, I think she didn’t have answers for a lot of questions.

@jca2 I think the Democrats need to listen to some of the concerns the Republicans have been relentless about and take an honest and objective look at the concerns and complaints. That includes your points about immigration, concerns about what is being taught in school surrounding gender and sexuality, concerns about transwomen in sports, ID to vote, and even mandating electric cars. The Democrats are going too far in my opinion and alienating people.

Republicans need to listen also on some topics, it’s not just one way.

I heard Trump say the Republican party is now the common sense party.