Should pre-election candidate polls be illegal?

[wtmusic]

Poll question: Should pre-election candidate polls be illegal?

Preposterous, but run with me for a minute.

How much of your support for a candidate is due to his/her electability? Should any of it be? It's obvious to most here that in an climate of media deregulation polling can effectively destroy or guarantee any candidate's potential. This has no bearing on whether the polls are legit or not.

Obviously this is a conflict of interest, and though they may satisfy curiosity IMO it's debatable whether any valid societal goal is furthered by polls.

Would/could a law like this be crafted so that it's constitutional?

[NC_Nurse]

1. No, just ignored.

[lame54]

2. Yes - it should be illegal to ask people their opinions

(just in case):sarcasm:

[wtmusic]

4. Point taken

but what about asking millions of people their opinions, then publishing the results (with no independent verification)?

Is there no distinction?

[LWolf]

6. It should be illegal to share them, anyway.

Polls corrupt the democratic process, and I would like to see them legally banned.

For a private citizen, working or acting for no interest group, to ask someone their opinion is one thing.

Even then, I may refuse to share that opinion, and I may expect my opinion to be kept in confidence. After all, sharing my opinion with one person is not the same as sharing it with the world.

For interest groups to ask people's opinions for the purpose of making them public and manipulating others, or for the purpose of making money, is not ethical, imo.

[Lasher]

3. They should be allowed only when my candidate is ahead.

Otherwise they should be outlawed. And in that case they're meaningless anyway.

[Bjorn Against]

5. I don't know if you could make them illegal...

I would assume that the first amendment's protections for free speech and freedom of the press would protect the right to conduct polls. That being said I really wish the press would choose to focus on the issues rather than the polling.

[comradebillyboy]

7. Should we repeal the first amendment?

nt

[aikoaiko]

8. When DUers ask questions like these I realize the left can be as scary as the right.

almost.


Seriously, if the 1st amendment means anything it protects this type of speech.

[wtmusic]

11. Voter coercion is not protected by free speech

and unless we're willing to have a governmental agency verify the results of polls (nightmare), why is a skewed poll not voter coercion?

[aikoaiko]

12. Poll data, even data skewed by the wording of questions, is not voter coercion

Poll data does not compel people to vote one way or the other. Its fair influence.

What is your definition of voter coercion? Is there a legal definition?

[wtmusic]

13. Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election

"Acts of fraud tend to involve affecting vote counts to bring about a desired election outcome, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote_fraud

If all Fox News stations erroneously announced that Hillary has had a nervous breakdown on the eve of the election, it would be electoral fraud (not protected by A1). Even if the station retracts the report, the damage is done. The difference between something like that and deliberately inflating or supressing a candidate's chances seems minimal.

Great Britain has prohibited exit polling since 1983, which by American standards seems like an egregious violation of free speech, but there has never since been a move to reinstate it.

[aikoaiko]

14. Poll data (even from skewed questions) is not election fraud.

There is no fraud involved when accurately reporting data from questions.

The best antidote to bad polling is good polling.

[wtmusic]

18. What about if data is not accurately reported?

if Gallup publishes a fake poll showing a Republican candidate leading by a margin of 25% going into the general election, how many Democratic voters would stay home? Does that constitute electoral fraud?

IMO the matter is not as cut and dried as you would have it, and that the precautionary principle might be called into play.

[originalpckelly]

17. I too have been discovering this lately.

It was a rude awakening to realize we're not always right. :rofl: I should have known better.

[dysfunctional press]

9. ummmm....free speech...ring any bells?

and no, it's nothing like yelling fire in a crowded theatre, because it doesn't put anyone's life at immediate risk.

[wtmusic]

10. Intimidating voters doesn't put anyone's life at risk either

but it's illegal as the day is long.

[dysfunctional press]

16. polling is not intimidation, just because your candidate doesn't do well.

:hi:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. I think this poll should be illegal.

If you think electability comes solely from poll numbers, you are mistaken. Electability comes from a variety of factors, of which polls are only one. Anyway, polls have a way of, how shall I put this, being wrong. They're hardly a yardstick of anything except vague / general perception within the targeted group.

[michreject]

19. Same with exit polls

I've never told the truth. Hope it screws up their data.