Push Polls

A push poll is a form of negative persuasion telephone calling during a political campaign that is meant to simulate a poll but is really intended to convince voters to switch candidates or to dissuade them from going to the polls to vote. To an unskilled recipient of such a call, it sounds like a traditional telephone survey at the start, but the tone and content of the questioning soon changes to the provision of negative information about one of the candidates. A distinguishing characteristic of a push poll is that often none of the “data” are analyzed; the purpose of the call is to “move” voters away from a preferred candidate. Push polling is so antithetical to legitimate polling that in 1996 the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), and the National Council on Public Polls (NCPP) issued a joint statement condemning the practice. Since then, the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR) has joined in this denunciation.

The support of the AAPC was important because campaigns often test thematic content or different approaches to arguments for the purposes of developing campaign strategy. In these circumstances, the polling firm is collecting data for analysis to determine which themes or approaches are most effective. But in a push poll, no data are analyzed; the calls are made with the intent of getting voters to switch their support from one candidate to another or to so turn them off from the political process that they will decide to stay home on Election Day rather than vote. And a great many more people are contacted than are needed in the standard sample size for a legitimate election campaign poll.

In a period of declining response rates, polling and survey research organizations are always concerned about establishing good rapport with respondents, in the short term with an eye toward completing a specific interview and, more generally, with the purpose of maintaining a positive image of the industry that will promote future cooperation in surveys. Having a bad experience with something that seems like a very biased poll is harmful to both of these interests.

In general, push polling efforts occur late in the campaign, when public disclosure is more problematical. Many of those called cannot distinguish between a legitimate call from an established polling firm for a telephone interview and a push poll call, so they stay on the phone. If the push poll campaign is not brought to light quickly, Election Day arrives and news coverage wanes right after a winner is declared in the contest; so the push poll succeeds in its intent without disclosure. Because there is little regulation of the polling industry, and none in real time, the most effective antidote to push polling is disclosure through the media. But this requires learning of the push polling through those who have received the calls and then trying to track down the source of the calls. Those who are most sensitive to push polls and likely to be sources of disclosure are pollsters and campaign workers. However, any single person is very unlikely to receive such a call to begin with.

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