Another Week of Questionable "Robopolls" Begins Tomorrow

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by: Colorado Pols

Back in April, the folks at North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling released a series of automated telephone poll results that raised methodological and common-sense eyeballs around the state. One of the biggest red flags was a polled name ID for Sen. Michael Bennet of almost 75%, which was an absurdly high number for a freshly-appointed Senator (and probably still is). And, well, Democrats didn’t love the poll for self-evident reasons.

Apparently they’ll be dribbling out the results of a new round of selfsame “robopolls” all week starting tomorrow. Their blogger writes:

When we polled Colorado in April and found both Michael Bennet and Bill Ritter with pretty iffy numbers that was the first time I started thinking Democrats might be in a little bit of trouble. The next week we polled Illinois and found Alexi Giannoulias and Mark Kirk tied- that furthered my sense things were shifting, and pretty much every poll we’ve conducted since then has fit that pattern.

So this week we’re back to Colorado and there’s good news for Democrats: things aren’t really any worse than they were in April in the state. And there’s good news for Republicans too: they had to like where they stood when we conducted that poll…

During the 2008 election cycle, PPP was criticized for switching up their methodology sans disclosure to produce a “big move” result–fun stuff, we’re not saying that’s what they did here, of course, but it’s helpful context. Look, we just don’t put a lot of stock in automated push-button polls like this in general–it’s just not a format that encourages a healthy cross section to participate, to say nothing of encouraging honest answers.

That said, the PPP folks did see fit to release one number today–Colorado, if they’re to be believed, has got itself a serious “birther” problem.

And lest you think all the birthers are in the south, 43% of Colorado Republicans think Barack Obama was not born in the United States, 33% think he was, and 24% are unsure.

We’re going to take the high road and assert that 67% of Colorado Republicans are not really that embarrassingly stupid, further calling into question this poll’s results. Though if they are, well, maybe we need to stop dissing the South after all.

7 thoughts on “Another Week of Questionable “Robopolls” Begins Tomorrow”

Go Blue says:

August 18, 2009 at 4:38 am

who tells their elected official to keep the government out of their Medicare!

If they’re crazy enough to believe the President wasn’t born in the U.S., they’re easy enough to be exploited by the elites against the poor saps own best interests.

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1. Libertad says:
  
  August 18, 2009 at 8:22 am
  
  and to think Ritter has a 45-41 F/U number and the Unafilliateds have yet to side with Corporate Titan Bennet.
  
  Not to mention Bennets name ID is what … zero. But take heart DPS has a +50% HS dropout rate and embedded its chronic operating deficits to all Coloradans via the pantsing of PERA.
  
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twas brillig says:

August 18, 2009 at 5:49 am

My irritation with these folks was linked to in the post as well as here.

In response, rather than directly addressing questions of dubious methodology, all they really had was the old standby: “so it’s pretty clearly just complaining when you don’t like the results rather than a true issue with PPP.”

Now this

And there’s good news for Republicans too: they had to like where they stood when we conducted that poll…

But this is where they polled the GOP candidates against Bennet in April:

Bennet leads three of the four in hypothetical contests, 39-35 over Frazier, 40-34 over Buck, and 41-34 over Penry. Beauprez leads him 43-42.

Can’t even stay off their own shoelaces.

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Vincent Lynn says:

August 18, 2009 at 6:44 pm

I can’t decide if the larger number of birthers is a good or bad thing for Dems. I thought the poll numbers were inflated, which I happily quoted to show how ridiculous the opposition is right now, but I was shocked to find that several of my Republican buddies are actually in this group too.

Which libs on the site think that the attention to the birthers, and the gaining momentum is a good thing…and why?

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1. rocco says:
  
  August 19, 2009 at 3:42 am
  
  the birther cur has to be called out.
  
  These goobers may or may not buy into this con. But it’s as good as any in the effort to delegitimize this administration. So whether or not they believe it, saying they do gives them cover for being assholes.
  
  Saw on a poll today that 73% of clusterfox viewers believe the President’s not a natural born citizen. Over half think he’s a Muslim. Same numbers that still believed Saddaam hit the towers on 9/11 a full 3 years later.
  
  Today caplis was birthering. He parrots straight rnc talking points, so if he is running that grift, the scam has gone mainstream republican.
  
  I’m wondering if the repubs are realizing that they can’t stop single payer by reconcilliation, and they’ve panicked.
  
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  1. RedGreen says:
    
    August 19, 2009 at 5:51 am
    
    and making the alternative look like the only sane game in town. In answer to Quayle above, that’s why attention to the birthers is good — it makes all Republicans look like whackos without a clue what matters to the country.
    
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    1. rocco says:
      
      August 19, 2009 at 6:45 pm
      
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