16-10-16 POLL POOP Getting more from Polls

POLL POOP – GETTING MORE FROM THE POLLS 10/16/2016
What if all polls had to have a map of where respondents were contacted based upon the answer
to one simple question? What if one of the first questions asked was “What zip code do you
reside in?”
Answering that question doesn’t seem too intrusive to me. With that one piece of info the
pollsters could readily produce a map, be it a State poll or a National poll. On the map they could
use blue dots for Democrat respondents, red for Republican respondents, pick a color for
Independents or Others. Using the zip code, which in most cases is a very general area based on
maps I looked at, the colored dots could be placed in the respondent’s zip code.
Creating a map with the general location of respondents by party affiliation would provide
more information as to the polls veracity when being discussed in the realm of
demographics and physical location of a respondent’s zip code.
Using those simple maps of where the respondents reside in general would give a glimpse of
other possible poll biases. An example of that would be a high concentration of respondents in
Metro Boston (college town) versus a low concentration of Western MA voters or a high volume
of respondents in the Research Triangle of North Carolina (white college educated) versus rural
North Carolina.
If polls provided the maps as additional respondent info, we would all be very surprised!