# Has anyone here ever been polled? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 7, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391 "2024-08-07T21:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/1 "2024-08-07T21:08:57Z")
We see polls for the elections all the time. I’ve never been asked who I’m going to vote for. I recently got a thing from Neilson about what I watch on TV, but never anything political. Who are they asking? Are they just blind calling numbers? If so it would seem to me to be a small portion of the populace that actually answers unknown numbers. I’m not being snarky, just curious. If this is the wrong forum, please move. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/2 "2024-08-07T21:21:49Z")
I do, but I have a YouGov account, and they do ask political questions. Not nearly often enough, but they do, and it’s been ramping up. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/3 "2024-08-07T21:25:09Z")
When I had a landline (through 2008), I got polled all the time. 4-5 times a week during election season, easily. After that I only had a cellphone, but still received a lot of polling calls. I made an effort about 10 years ago to get on no-call lists. I believe political groups were exempt from DNC lists back then, but I believe that’s no longer the case? ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/4 "2024-08-07T21:26:47Z")
I get those calls from time to time. I assume it’s because the voter rolls are public. As a registered Republican (RINO, I only am so I can vote in the primaries), they’re all generally from PACs, not independent/non-partisan pollsters. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/5 "2024-08-07T21:31:05Z")
Never. I’d venture to guess that they’re more common in battleground states. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/6 "2024-08-07T21:35:39Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’d venture to guess that they’re more common in battleground states Right, NY for me now, and previously CA and ME. So not really purples, or matter much. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/7 "2024-08-07T21:45:13Z")
Couple of times. Once long ago was an obvious push poll. Later a governor’s race. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/8 "2024-08-07T21:52:14Z")
I got a phone poll once in 2003. They wanted to know what I thought of Dubya’s “mission accomplished” speech. I assume I got called because I lived in San Diego at the time and he had been in our area to give the speech. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/9 "2024-08-07T22:00:56Z")
So when ya’ll got polled, was it a random phone call? Some online thing? Because I don’t answer random phone numbers. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/10 "2024-08-07T22:04:48Z")
All the time. Gallup has me on speed-dial, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/11 "2024-08-07T22:24:22Z")
I have disregarded lots of calls and even more texts because I don’t really know who’s asking. And they always want an email address or something. No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/12 "2024-08-07T22:30:52Z")
Used to get polled regularly with the landline. Don’t really answer my cell these days so no polling although I’m guessing some of those calls are polls. In fact, I know they are since I answered one the other day thinking it was a different call I was expecting. Guy tried to launch into a poll but I didn’t have time for it. I’m in Illinois, so not a battleground state by any means. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/13 "2024-08-07T23:32:45Z")
I used to, but now I don’t answer unknown numbers, and I’ve never answered any questions from some unknown entity that initiated the contact. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/14 "2024-08-07T23:54:55Z")
I’ve been polled several times for Democratic primaries, generally early in the season. Since I’m lazy and don’t research the candidate until the week before the election I’m usually not very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/15 "2024-08-08T00:06:09Z")
I was polled back in 2020 - I can’t really remember why I answered my phone that day, but I gladly participated in the poll which, IIRC, was mostly about the state level races. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/16 "2024-08-08T05:06:28Z")
I think it was in 2022 that I got polled, twice in the space of about a month. They called my cell phone (I haven’t had a land line in decades). Mostly they wanted to know what issues I was most interested in and how I leaned politically. It seemed like it was geared more toward national issues and not local ones. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/17 "2024-08-08T05:48:36Z")
I live in a swing state. I’ve gotten random texts and calls before every election. Actually this year has been comparatively slow. I stopped answering unsolicited ones after one morphed into an obvious push poll (“would your support for candidate X go up or down if I told you they kicked puppies?”) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/18 "2024-08-08T05:50:18Z")
I forgot to add, if anyone isn’t aware I live in Washington which is a solid blue state, so clearly they don’t just target the swing states. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/19 "2024-08-08T10:57:03Z")
I haven’t had a landline in a long time, and on my cell calls not on my contact list go directly to voicemail. Back when I did answer my phone, my attitude towards polling was it was none of their business. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391/20 "2024-08-08T11:20:15Z")
Yes - frequently online (by Civiqs, which I signed up with), and occasionally by phone, though it’s been several years since I got polled by phone. If I have time, I usually will answer. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-ever-been-polled/1005391.md?page=2)