I can’t help thinking that this constant inundation of poll results is becoming the proverbial beast that feeds on itself- isn’t it possible that the numbers could begin fluctuating according to undecideds’ perceptions of the numbers themselves?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to scale it back a bit, and not conduct national or state polls more than once a week? I know it’d be near impossible to enforce an edict like that today with as many polling organizations as there are. . . I just can’t believe that the–if I may be so dramatic–democratic process is really served by this kind of analysis overload. (?)
How is the democratic process served by polls at all?
Personally, I’m fascinated by them. I love a good poll. But I don’t think they serve a valuable purpose other than to keep me home and off drugs. Or something. Do you see them as having a purpose?
In college we read a book whose name I can’t think of right now, but it excoriated media coverage of elections as being primarily focused on the horserace facet of them, ignoring issues in favor of treating the whole thing like a sporting event. I thought it made a good case.
Although polls are fun, in the same way that D&D battles are fun or bowling is (presumably) fun, they’re really pretty insignificant: I would far prefer the media to ignore polls in favor of issue-oriented coverage.
I think that some people out there are influenced by the polls. They either don’t have any political leanings or just don’t care and they want to be on the side of the winner. Normally this is not a problem but in a close race this group of “undecided and easily swayed” could play a significant roll in an election.
A purpose? That’s a good question. . . I guess their most unsullied purpose is just keeping folks aware of where the populace stands at any given moment on this or that candidate (?) Or seems to. But this minute-by-minute stuff becomes pointless after a while- Kerry gained a percentage point in Minnesota according to Time, Newseek, and the Farmer’s Weekly of Natchez! Bush is down a point in Ohio according to Zogby, but Rasmussen has him with a five-point lead! Etc., etc.
But, really, aside from my intense and wildly misplaced curiosity, what is that awareness for? If polls were banned (which they couldn’t be, of course, but bear with me) what would we actually lose?
I’d be depressed for five or ten minutes and then get distracted by… ooh! Shiny!
The only thing I can think of that they’re good for (besides snarky D&D hijacks) is as a motivational tool for the faithful. That is, if your candidate is behind by 10 points in the polls, it’s a good indication that you need to get off your butt and start agitating in favor of the candidate.
However, this does seem to me like it’d be a more useful function to keep in-house. Let the campaigns run their own polls and disseminate them to their faithful; it’s not nearly as important for the rest of us to know about them.
That said, I suspect they’re news for the same reason baseball games are bigger news than tax policies: they’re easier to understand, and they’re more fun. More fun=more viewership=more ads sold.
It looks as if it’s been updated since I read it–I read it in 1996, and the latest version apparently covers the Gore/Bush campaign. Still, it might be worth a look for folks interested in the topic.
So what? These polls keep everybody interested in the political process. And every time those polls show one candidate ahead, the other side gets scared and redoubles its voter-registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. Isn’t that a good thing? If you believe in democracy, you have to believe that an engaged citizenry and high voter turnout are invaluable ends-in-themselves, regardless of what electoral results they produce.
I actually don’t pay nearly enough attention to polls for me to notice daily polls. Or even weekly ones. Of course, I’m not in the politics business, but if I were, I don’t think I’d pay much attention to ones that weren’t about me personally. For ones about my personal agenda, my egomania might trump my lack of interest in polls.
