Phone polls have lost ring of truth Cellphone users don't get the call Response rates concern pollsters
TIM HARPER WASHINGTON BUREAU TORONTO STAR Oct. 20, 2004 WASHINGTON - The last weeks of the U.S. election campaign may have doomed telephone polling, which became common three decades ago late in the Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford contest. The reason? Cellphones. The traditional method of polling via random phone calls to American homes may be missing a significant and active part of the electorate, and an increasing number of analysts are suggesting a surprise may be in store Nov. 2. ------------------- >For his part, [pollster] Dr. Bevins warns that the accuracy of his own poll may be suspect since the voters in the survey were contacted exclusively by phone: "We find that a lot of people are unwilling to answer the phone these days because they're afraid it might be Bill O'Reilly." Elsewhere, election officials in Florida said that they have encountered a new problem with their electronic voting machines and that the time- code "12:00" will not stop blinking on and off. < (from the Borowitz Report) Jim Devine
