PBS online poll posted...Sarah Palin is qualified?

[Catty1]

Got this in an email at work:

PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified. We're told the right wing is flooding it with Yes votes. The poll will be reported on PBS and likely picked up by mainstream media.

Voting takes about two seconds:

1) Click on link and vote: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

2) Pass it on.

[Lady's Human]

So send out the email so the left wing can flood the site, making the poll about as useful as any other online poll.

[Catty1]

LH - if you click "About the Sarah Palin Poll" - the first line below the results - there's an interesting bit there about who has multiple voting capabilities, and who has cookies on theirs (as PBS did on this one). Any person can only vote once, pretty much.

It can still be slanted, I agree...but it's not quite as easy. As they say, this poll WILL be referred to in the media, even though it plainly states it is not scientific - and the lead has gone back and forth between the L and the R.

[lizbud]

So send out the email so the left wing can flood the site, making the poll about as useful as any other online poll.

Well, I almost agree with you on the futile nature of circulating a poll, I believe the" Right" would most likely be the targeted group.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I can't believe this "poll" will be given any more credence than the How Citizens of Other Countries Would Vote poll is.

A real poll is conducted in a very specific way. This is just another internet game.

[Karen]

Almost all online polls say, in the fine print, that "this is not a scientifically valid poll" as by their very nature, people can choose to vote in an online poll, or to ignore it entirely, every website has its own particular viewership demographics, and so the polls just make people feel like they are making a difference.

[catland]

Having formerly worked in the market research field, I agree with Karen and ES, these are not valid polls and their results are meaningless.