Polling

Polling has become a common way for individuals, groups, and societies to gauge public opinion on a [Page 1140]variety of issues. Because of the responsiveness and breadth of the media and the greater access to news via different technological means, polling has changed the political landscape by offering instant feedback on how the public feels about various topics and concerns. Such instant feedback can affect decisions by political leaders and it can also affect the choice that an individual will make in a situation. Activism and social change are based on participation. Polling is a vehicle for participation because individuals can share their ideas and opinions in a public forum.

Polling began as a very unscientific process and was mainly used to gather information on how the public was feeling about issues. Straw polling, first documented in 1824, was used by newspapers to improve election coverage. Voters were asked by newspaper writers about their votes after they left the polling places.

More than 100 years later, in 1936, George Gallup improved polling techniques by utilizing statistical and scientific procedures to conduct polls with more accurate results. Gallup's polling techniques were new in that they used representative samples to develop their findings. This technique, though not as pure as random sampling, was broad enough to generate reliable findings. Polling firms multiplied, and polling became an important form of both political and market research.

From an ideological standpoint, Gallup envisioned that polling would promote the democratic ideal of participation. Polls could do what elections could not; they could determine how the public was feeling on specific issues. In this way, individuals would have an additional place to inform leaders of their political, social, and policy opinions.

One of the major political uses of polls is in presidential campaigns. Presidential polls survey the public on their preferred choice for president. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first presidential candidate to have relied on polls to acquire information on public opinions of his image, policies, and ideas. Candidates often change their campaign strategies and foci as a result of feedback from polls.

Incidentally, results from exit polls, which are polls taken after individuals have cast their presidential ballots, have been criticized in some instances as decreasing voter turnout. When the media report the results of exit polls, some individuals use the lead margins to determine whether they should even bother to vote. Individuals end up further removed from the democratic voting process. This example is an unintended outcome of public opinion polling.

Methods of polling have changed with advances in technology. Initially polls were conducted face to face. Later, polls by mail became popular. As more people installed telephones in their homes, telephone polls were developed and perfected. The Internet is currently an emergent vehicle for polling. With each method of polling, there are always challenges to accuracy, randomness, representation, and access. It is the poor who are less likely to have telephones or Internet access, and so they are less likely to express their opinions in these forms of polling. As with other means of participation, polling offers a great possibility to increase access and opportunity for individuals to shape their society. When polls are conducted improperly, however, or with little thought, they can cause further disenfranchisement and alienation by those who are already removed from the political process.

...