# How Do I Get a Pollster to Notice Me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 19, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534 "2017-03-19T06:17:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/1 "2017-03-19T06:17:43Z")
I’ve forever read about this or that poll but never known anyone who was actually polled. Not counting the way Trump is “poling” the entire country right now. I would love to add my opinion officially to the “Thinks Trump Stinks” majority category they come out with each week. Can I e-mail them my number or what? There must be some way to persuade them to notice me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/2 "2017-03-19T06:21:52Z")
Move to Ohio before any major election. And answer your phone every goddamn time it rings. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/3 "2017-03-19T12:09:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve forever read about this or that poll but never known anyone who was actually polled. Not counting the way Trump is “poling” the entire country right now. I would love to add my opinion officially to the “Thinks Trump Stinks” majority category they come out with each week. > > Can I e-mail them my number or what? **There must be some way to persuade them to notice me.** A random sample is wanted, not volunteers. 😉 Trump might be hiring. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/4 "2017-03-19T12:17:46Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve forever read about this or that poll but never known anyone who was actually polled. I was repeatedly polled during the last election – presumably due to (a) living in a swing state and (b) picking up the phone on the first ring. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/5 "2017-03-19T12:53:49Z")
Try a new hairstyle. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/6 "2017-03-19T13:50:35Z")
Yeah, seriously, making yourself easy to reach by phone is key. Get a landline if you don’t have one already (live human pollsters will call cell phones, but automated ones won’t), make sure the number is listed in the phone directory, and always answer the phone. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/7 "2017-03-19T20:16:34Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Yeah, seriously, making yourself easy to reach by phone is key. Get a landline if you don’t have one already (live human pollsters will call cell phones, but automated ones won’t), make sure the number is listed in the phone directory, and always answer the phone. Yep, that will get you noticed… if you don’t go insane first from all the telemarketers that will also “notice” you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/8 "2017-03-19T20:18:04Z")
Well, I am not moving to Ohio or getting a landline. So I may be out of luck. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/9 "2017-03-20T03:58:28Z")
Did you vote for him? Were you planning on voting for him prior to the election? If not, why do you think your opinion is under-represented in current polling? And if you don’t think so, what do you hope to accomplish by making the polls even _less_ accurate? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/10 "2017-03-20T04:02:03Z")
I WANT TO GIVE MY OPINION TO A POLLSTER, DAMMIT!.. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/11 "2017-03-20T04:38:11Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > A random sample is wanted, not volunteers. 😉 I’m a professional market researcher, and this is the real answer. A true random poll needs to be done from a truly random sample, including (ideally) some people who really don’t want to participate, since their opinions might differ from those who would eagerly participate. And, most political polls have sample sizes that aren’t terribly large – a few hundred to a few thousand people, at most, within a state. Thanks to statistical modeling, you don’t need a much bigger sample than that to get poll numbers that are representative of what you’d get from a census (that is, surveying _eveyrone_), assuming that you’ve done a good job of building your sample. Polls that are done among volunteers (or “convenience samples”) are notoriously unreliable – remember the “polls” that one of Trump’s spokesmen pointed to after the debates, claiming them as evidence that Trump had won the debates? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/12 "2017-03-20T07:35:09Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I WANT TO GIVE MY OPINION TO A POLLSTER, DAMMIT!.. :mad: Why? ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/13 "2017-03-20T08:16:10Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Why? Presumably from the catharsis inherent in signaling to said statistician that Trump can, to wit, go suck a cannonball through a straw. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/14 "2017-03-20T14:19:32Z")
If he’s just after catharsis, he should have posted in the Pit. If he’s interested in actually defeating Trump, he needs to rethink his tactics. Imagine if everybody did what he wants to do. Thousands of angry liberals and moderates somehow get the attention of pollsters. Does Trump resign in shame? No. Democratic politicians and party leaders see the polls and think that whatever they are doing is working. Republicans decide they need to market their message better and double down on advertising, voter outreach, suppressing Democratic votes, and such. What happens in the next election then? Sure, the chances of that are small, but: a) like **kenobi 65** explained, pollsters rely on small but well selected samples, so only a small number of responses could skew the results, and b) people acting on emotions instead of reason, even when it’s against their own interest, is the whole reason we’re in this fucking mess. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/15 "2017-03-20T17:52:35Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Try a new hairstyle. …and [bus advertisements](https://youtu.be/mwxNK9PR-m0)… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/16 "2017-03-21T05:12:28Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > Presumably from the catharsis inherent in signaling to said statistician that Trump can, to wit, go suck a cannonball through a straw. What he said. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/17 "2017-03-21T05:44:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > What he said. What I said! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/18 "2017-03-21T06:00:41Z")
Given that the USA population numbers in the hundreds of millions, and only a tiny fraction of those are ever surveyed by Gallup for presidential races, etc., it was and is always unlikely that one would get contacted by a pollster. That’s just the population-to-polled ratio at work. ---
**Author:** ![Unabashed\_Fascist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c2a13f/32.png) [@Unabashed\_Fascist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unabashed_Fascist)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/19 "2017-04-03T19:47:57Z")
It seems to me that seeking out a pollster to voice your opinion defeats the purpose of random sampling. You would be introducing selection bias. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_lining](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Silver\_lining](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_lining)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534/20 "2017-04-04T14:01:10Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I’m a professional market researcher, and this is the real answer. > > A true random poll needs to be done from a truly random sample, including (ideally) some people who really don’t want to participate, since their opinions might differ from those who would eagerly participate. > > And, most political polls have sample sizes that aren’t terribly large – a few hundred to a few thousand people, at most, within a state. Thanks to statistical modeling, you don’t need a much bigger sample than that to get poll numbers that are representative of what you’d get from a census (that is, surveying _eveyrone_), assuming that you’ve done a good job of building your sample. > > Polls that are done among volunteers (or “convenience samples”) are notoriously unreliable – remember the “polls” that one of Trump’s spokesmen pointed to after the debates, claiming them as evidence that Trump had won the debates? Well several on line polls said Trump won the debate. Hillary Clinton was given the questions in advance, a highly unfair advantage. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-pollster-to-notice-me/782534.md?page=2)