(obligatory election tech question) Is there a consideration of cell phones?

[underpants]

I ask this because the main stream media is SOOOO united on how bad the President will do in his first midterm election. This is, of course, nothing new in fact it is the norm-unless you have the buildup to a war and questioning people's patriotism- the first midterm always has the party in power losing seats. Reagan lost seats in 1982 for crying outloud.


We have been deluged with the Congressional acceptance poll numbers since Bush's numbers started to tank - again. This was new, I can't remember hearing about general Congressional poll numbers. <--- this stinks of Lutz/GOP stank.

Now we have numbers that don't really indicate the Dems losing other than the media telling us that they will and how "angry" 20% of the population is. THIS 40% of the population was angry for a long time- 8 years in fact. But the story is the story because they have numbers to support it.

The question is: Do any of the polls factor that no one without a landline has not been represented in any poll that we have seen?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Were the polls notably wrong in 2008?

All pollsters are aware of this issue.

The quality of polling was not notably poor by historic standards in 2008 so the effect appears to not be damaging.

If late 2010 polls turn out to be notably distorted toward the elderly (skew republican) then the issue will be revisited in light of additional data.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I suspect they have proprietary corrective formulas.

[underpants]

3. Actually yes they were

No one had Obama winning Virginia by 3%
No one had him at 53%- or at least we weren't allowed to know that
No one had him winning Indiana
No one had him winning North Carolina

etc.