Is this why polling was so skewed?

[Adam Griffin]

I'm not exactly sure it makes sense so help me think through this (seeing as how I can only think of a couple of unsure reasons why this would be), but I am considering the idea that the polls were so off because more and more olds now have cellphones instead of land-lines.

In the past this has led to samples being less Democratic than the electorate would appear, but as cell phones become more prevalent and affordable, is it possible that even the older demographics are now going off the grid en masse, and are therefore less accessible to pollsters? It actually does make a bit more sense to me that middle-class olds are likely adopting the tech in much higher numbers than they would have been just a few years old (when mainly wealthy olds would have been the predominant group possessing them), leaving mainly the poor more represented in land-line polling, who would probably skew more Democratic.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Naw.

[Adam Griffin]

Naw.

Care to elaborate then, preferably sans Bush-era conspiracy theory?

[solarstorm]

That sounds conclusive.

[Mechaman]

Well possibly that, though I think a better conclusion is that many people just don't like answering freaking phone polling (going back to your point about landline polling and people being "off the grid" so to speak).  I can tell you I've been polled five times in the past two years and I hung up each time.  My parents hang up on pollsters all the time.  My friend who runs several stores in the area never answers phone polls.

I mean really think about it: imagine you are not a political hack or a very polite person and you got a random robocall from CoolPoliticsUSA or whoever when you are in the middle of doing laundry, watching tv, working on a side project for work, playing Skyrim, plotting to kill somebody, etc. etc. how charitable or nice are you going to feel?  Can you seriously tell me that you will be jumping up and down just dying to even entertain Hal 9000 for a few minutes by providing some likely bullshit answers just so you can go back to watching clown porn in peace?

Just my two cents.

[King]

Democrats who said they were going to vote and then didn't.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Naw.

Care to elaborate then, preferably sans Bush-era conspiracy theory?

The following makes more sense. Not sure why you mention Bush-era conspiracy theories.

Democrats who said they were going to vote and then didn't.