Cell phones throw political polls out of whack

Posted June 27th, 2011
Written by RPD Staff

It wasn’t that long ago that only the wealthy had cell phones, and the rest of us were anchored to our homes with landlines. Only now, the table has turned and it’s the common folk who own mobile phones, and the wealthy who can afford traditional landlines. With the numbered masses of cell phone citizens growing each day, it only stands to reason that political polls are not quite as accurate as they once were. Political pollsters using landlines are having no trouble reaching lots and lots of older, white women, but not necessarily so many minorities or younger voters, who are more likely to go cell phone only.

Case in point, polls predicted that Republican Bill Brady would beat out Democrat Pat Quinn by 5%+ last year, but the final result — Governor Quinn wins it for the Democrats, poll results thrown off by failure to reach cell phone voters in these preliminary queries. Outcomes like these emphasize the need for updated polling mechanisms and the ability to reach principally cell phone users. Though some people are porting their home telephone numbers over to their mobile phones, there is still a long way to go to reach the prime voting audience.

Perhaps there’s no choice than to go back even further than the telephone, and start knocking on doors again…