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War over polls intensifies

Started by SGOS, October 26, 2016, 09:56:37 AM

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SGOS

I had to chuckle over the following comment from a news article.  While it tries to shine a light on how polls can be rigged, it fails to point out one important reason polls may show Hillary ahead.  Can you guess that reason?  (see spoiler).

https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/homenews/campaign/302571-are-the-polls-skewed-against-trump
Quote
Donald Trump is ripping pollsters and the media, arguing the surveys are biased against him because many include too many Democrats in their sampling surveys.

[spoiler]Polls could be reflecting that Trump has weak support.  Reflecting! it's what polls are supposed to do. [/spoiler]

Cavebear

Political Rule#3 - If you are complaining about the polls, you are losing way bad.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

GSOgymrat

I know this article is tangential but I didn't want to start a separate topic. North Carolina as a history of gerrymandering and other partisan games. I live in Guilford county.

This Is What Actual Voter Suppression Looks Like, And It’s Appalling
In one county, a reduction in polling places has helped cut early voting by 85 percent.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/voter-suppression-2016_us_581028c2e4b02b1d9e63bcd2

Donald Trump regularly tells his supporters that the election has been rigged against him, and on Monday he accused Hillary Clinton’s campaign of utilizing a “voter suppression technique” that involved manipulating polls. (Politifact rated his claim “pants on fire” false.)
But with early voting now underway in several states, the real-world effects of actual (and very consequential) voter suppression have begun to bubble up.

Exhibit A is North Carolina, where in recent months reporters discovered that state Republican leaders had sent emails directing GOP appointees on local elections boards to “make party line changes” to limit early voting.

In one message, titled “CRITICAL and CONFIDENTIAL,” a Republican district chairman urged election officials to offer only one early voting site for the minimum hours allowed by law, so as not to give Democrats an advantage.

Early in-person voting began in North Carolina on Oct. 20, and Professor Michael McDonald, an elections expert at the University of Florida, said the impact of reduced voting sites is already evident in early returns:

Not all local boards listened, but some did, and the effect is obvious. The volume of early voting is generally down in the counties that reduced the number of polling locations and is up where the number increased.



Perhaps the most egregious county is Guilford, a county of 517,600 people, of which 57.9 percent is White, and gave Obama 58 percent of the vote in 2012. The county opened 16 in-person early voting locations in 2012, but has only their central election office open in 2016. The number of in-person voters on the first Thursday and Friday was 21,560 in 2012, but was only 3,305 in 2016, a decrease of 18,255 or 85 percent.
Mecklenburg, where the state’s largest city Charlotte is located and a county Obama won with 61 percent of the vote, decreased their number of polling locations from 22 to 10. The effect was not as pronounced as Guilford. The number of in-person voters on the first Thursday and Friday was 29,068 in 2012, and was 26,660 in 2016, a decrease of 2,426 or 8 percent.

Many North Carolina counties will expand their in-person early voting polling locations the week before the election. Guilford will have 25 polling locations open at later points in the early voting period and Mecklenburg will have 22 (particularly the last week). In the past, the volume of early voting has increased as the election nears, so these actions to reduce turnout may not be entirely effective.

SGOS

It seems like in politics whenever one side points the finger at someone else, it's usually about something the finger pointer is guilty of.

Hydra009

Trump simultaneously says the polls are phony and that he's winning in the polls.  So does he expect his supporters to trust the polls or not trust the polls?

Baruch

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 26, 2016, 05:35:50 PM
Trump simultaneously says the polls are phony and that he's winning in the polls.  So does he expect his supporters to trust the polls or not trust the polls?

Even the final pole, the vote ... is rigged.  Trillions of dollars are at stake ... the voters never stand a chance.  Enjoy your Fantasy Island adventure, Mr Roark.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Trump is losing and Clinton is winning.  Trump would say Martians are attacking tomorrow if he thought it would get a single vote anywhere or 10 seconds on the news shows..
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

AllPurposeAtheist

FBI director Comey decided to get in the fray by tossing out yet more emails that may or may not mean didly shit, but yet he tossed fresh red meat to the republicans 11 days before the election. The guy should be taken out and shot along with Julian Assange and his merry band of election tamperers so apparently the entire right wing is just fine with a foreign entity calling the shots in favor of the Trumpster fire.
All hail my new signature!

Admit it. You're secretly green with envy.

Cavebear

Comey shouldn't be shot, but he should be removed.  Ineptness is always a firing offense.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Baruch

Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on October 29, 2016, 03:05:40 AM
FBI director Comey decided to get in the fray by tossing out yet more emails that may or may not mean didly shit, but yet he tossed fresh red meat to the republicans 11 days before the election. The guy should be taken out and shot along with Julian Assange and his merry band of election tamperers so apparently the entire right wing is just fine with a foreign entity calling the shots in favor of the Trumpster fire.

Why not just make Obama "President for Life" like Poppa Doc or Baby Doc down in Haiti?  End justifies the means.

I think you should calm down.  Hillary was already guilty of leaving classified material on her personal email server (for which I would be arrested) ... so what does one more classified email amount to?

Here is what would take her down ... that she has emails on Mr Weiner's devices because she was doing the hoochy coochy with Mr Weiner, while his equally evil wife (Mrs Wiener) was watching (selfie picture by Mr Weiner while Hillary is in-frame).
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: Cavebear on October 29, 2016, 03:21:05 AM
Comey shouldn't be shot, but he should be removed.  Ineptness is always a firing offense.

You mean just like J Edgar Hoover?  Or a Justice Department just like John Mitchell?  Do you even remember Watergate?  It was the Deputy Director who was Deep Throat.  Thank G-d for interference ... someone has to stop the CIA etc ... otherwise Tricky Dick would still be President.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

SGOS

The email thing will plague Hillary for the next 8 years (I'm taking bets).  Unless they can find evidence of actual wrongdoing, no, illegal activity, the questions will remain as part of the collective perception.  The emails are just part of the cloud that follows her everywhere.

Baruch

Hillary is Tricky P***y ... because like Nixon, if the Clintons do it, it is legal.  So funny when the shoe is on the other foot ... if the Rs had been as corrupt as the Clintons (way beyond Nixonian) ... the Ds would have burned the White House down with Nixon in it.  But then the Ds stole the 1960 election ... so they should dwell in Hell, right next to the Rs.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Quote from: SGOS on October 29, 2016, 09:00:57 AM
The email thing will plague Hillary for the next 8 years (I'm taking bets).  Unless they can find evidence of actual wrongdoing, no, illegal activity, the questions will remain as part of the collective perception.  The emails are just part of the cloud that follows her everywhere.

What odds?

I doubt the email thing will be a matter of concern by January.  The Repubs will have a lot more internal knife-fights going on by then.  There is no substance to the emails.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

SGOS

Quote from: Cavebear on October 29, 2016, 09:26:18 AM

I doubt the email thing will be a matter of concern by January.  The Repubs will have a lot more internal knife-fights going on by then.  There is no substance to the emails.

Substance to the suspicion is irrelevant.  What makes the emails important are the unknowns.  Why are they important right now?  Oh, wait, I know.  I'll bet Hillary sexted her titty pics to Weiner.  And unless something of substance shows up by January, the emails and what we don't know about what they contain, will still be haunting Americans when the Rapture comes.  This is an issue the Republicans don't want resolved.  If the FBI actually leaks Hillary's titty pics to the press, everyone will find closure and emails will no longer serve a purpose.