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Oct. 22, 2002

Watch Out for the Push Poll Gremlins

By J. Barlow Herget

RALEIGH – It’s not only getting close to Halloween but it’s also that time of election year when the "push poll" gremlins take to the phone lines.

Push pollsters are to legitimate opinion researchers what graveyard vandals are to landscape architects. They give polling a bad name as well as their hapless political targets. Indeed, that’s the push poll’s purpose -- to smear political opponents.

They’re called push polls because they’re trying to push voters in a certain direction, usually away from a particular candidate or issue. Valid opinion surveys try to accurately measure the public’s temper on various topics or candidates such as people’s feelings about Erskine Bowles and Elizabeth Dole.

While push polls are sometimes confused with valid surveys, the push poll has some identifying marks that you can easily pick out in a line-up. Here’s what to look for when you hear a caller announce he or she is taking a poll and asks you to participate:

• Push polls typically appear close to Election Day. You’re not going to get any push polls early in a campaign. Their sponsors want to ambush their victims without giving them time to respond.
• Push polls ask very nasty questions. While the caller may begin the poll with some typical polling questions: Are you registered to vote? Did you vote in the last election? The caller quickly gets to the mud. You may be asked, for example: would you vote for George Washington if you knew he beat his wife, Martha? Then, would you vote for George Washington if you knew he spent a lot of time with guys who wore wigs and ballerina tights?
• Push polls usually don’t last long. They’re hit and run specialists. The push pollster isn’t after your opinion; he’s out to change yours. They deliver their smears in the form of questions and move on.
• Push pollsters call thousands of people. Proper opinion pollsters call a limited number of carefully selected people, between 400 and 1000.

If you talk to your neighbors and co-workers and they all received similar survey calls, chances are, you’ve been push polled.

Push polls are the bane of authentic opinion researchers, and the growing use of Internet Web surveys that use push poll type questions is troubling to organizations such as the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC). AAPOR says "such polls defame selected candidates by spreading false or misleading information" and "the intent is to disseminate campaign propaganda under the guise of conducting a legitimate public opinion poll."

Push polls are not always the handiwork of low-life candidates. One of the worst recent campaigns in which push polls were employed was the 2000 Primary Election in South Carolina between then Gov. George Bush and Sen. John McCain. According to CNN News, push pollsters suggested that McCain was "a liar and a cheat" and that was the less sordid of the slanders. Bush claimed his campaign had no part in the dirty trick. In fact, push polls often are operated by groups and special interests separate from candidates own organizations.

The confusion between push polls and legitimate surveys comes when the latter ask probing questions about issues that may be used later for campaign advertisements. They may ask, for example, would you be more likely or less likely to vote for George Washington if you knew that he was a longhair revolutionary in his younger days.

Should the pollster find that 80 percent of the respondents would be less likely to vote for George, there’s a high probability that his opponent would produce a 30-second advertisement making that information known.

Remember, push pollsters are selling information; legitimate opinion pollsters are collecting information. And they want accurate information and honest answers. That’s why their surveys tend to take longer and the questions gauge varying levels of opinion, e.g. are you very angry, mildly angry, somewhat happy, very happy or have no opinion about George Washington’s comments about King George.

Because Nov. 5 Election Day is so near, there’s little time for any more valid issue polls.

You may get a call for a "horse race" poll; these are short, no-nonsense surveys that ask who you’re going to vote for.

If you receive a call from a push pollster, you may want to write down the questions and inform the press. Or tell the caller he should be ashamed and you're going to vote for the victim of his smear. Or just hang up.

Barlow Herget is a writer and former member of the Raleigh City Council who has employed political opinion pollsters.