[thechat] US prez debates

[deacon]

On 1 Oct 2004 at 7:11, Scott Dexter wrote:
> > All the online polls were giving it to Kerry last night though, so 
> > maybe I'm not too far off what all you USians think.
 
> The quick news nugget I heard this morning put Kerry at a slight win,
> though a significant number (>15%) called it a draw. The next rounds
> should be interesting.....

The CBS poll was of a little more than 200 registered voters who were 
undecided. It was conducted by Knowledge Networks.

KN set up a panel that is polled weekly on various things, not just 
politics. They were used by Procter and Gamble do market research 
on plastic wrap, for instance, by Pepsi when it came time to name 
Sierra Mist, and they seem to do a lot of work for beer companies who 
want to know who's watching ads, and what they think of the ads. 

Instead of letting people volunteer to be on the poll, they select 
neighborhoods, and then have the computer generate a random 
phone number. If it's *your* phone number, they camp on your 
telephone and mailbox until you agree to join the panel. 

It was started by a couple of profs - from Leland Stanford Junior 
University (Leland Stanford Junior, not Junior University) if I recall 
correctly - and they've been exceptionally successful. One of the 
founders was the guy behind the SPSS stats software.

Anyhow, after that introduction, the undecided voters polled by KN for 
CBS came up with 
     Kerry - 43%
     Bush - 28%
     Tie - 29%

Everybody says it's going to be the undecided voters who determine 
this election, because it's so close, and from my seat, I'd say that it's 
the people who decided it would be a tie that are still in the catbird 
seat. 

Your interpretation and milage may vary.

deke


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