| Message Number: | 565 |
| From: | Daniel Reeves <dreeves Æ umich.edu> |
| Date: | Tue, 7 Nov 2006 21:05:18 -0500 (EST) |
| Subject: | Re: 40% chance that democrats take both house and senate |
But it's only been in recent elections that the bias has shown up (according to the GOP website -- I haven't researched this myself). In any case, those are hypotheses to test, as you say. The conspiracy theory is plausible enough that it's important we get a scientifically rigorous answer to this. Reliable sources solicited! And the conspiracy doesn't have to be vast and across the board -- if there's an exit poll bias then there should be a measurable exit poll skew factor that can be adjusted for to detect instances of fraud. Actually, just checking if the exit poll skew is universal should reveal a lot. As Matt notes, a vast across-the-board conspiracy is implausible. --- \/ FROM Matt Rudary AT 06.11.07 20:47 (Today) \/ --- > What makes 1 more plausible than a vast, right-wing conspiracy that changes > vote counts across the board in every district without detection? Seriously? > > OK, here are a couple hypotheses to test: > > 1) Young people are more likely to vote Democratic and are also more likely > to answer exit polls than older people. > > 2) People who work 60+ hours a week are more likely to vote Republican and > are less likely to answer exit polls than people who work fewer than 60 hours > per week. > > 3) People without jobs are more likely to vote Democratic and are more likely > to answer exit polls than people with jobs. > > There are all sorts of reasons opt-out surveys are less accurate than > mandatory surveys. These hypotheses may have explanatory power. > > Matt > > Daniel Reeves wrote: >> and 6% chance that republicans keep both. >> >> ... according to the prediction market at tradesports.com. >> >> >> Question: What do you all think of allegations that Republicans are >> cheating? >> >> Here's some damning evidence from the GOP itself: >> http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID 18 >> >> From that page: >> "For reasons that remain unclear, Democratic voters are more likely than >> Republicans to agree to interview requests from pollsters." >> >> (Just to spell it out: If the exit polls favor democrats and the real >> polls favor republicans, there are two explanations: >> 1. a democratic bias in exit polls. >> 2. a republican bias in the real polls. >> What makes 1 more plausible? Seriously, how do Republicans answer that? >> This is scary!) >> > -- http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves - - search://"Daniel Reeves" A programmer started to cuss Because getting to sleep was a fuss As he lay there in bed Looping 'round in his head was: while(!asleep()) sheep++; -- David Jayne (submitted by Dave Morris, 2004)

