What is Push Polling?

[LuminousX]

Campaign terminology


Push polling. To the media, this means attack phone calls used in a campaign to disseminate lies about the opposition.

But technically, there is no such thing as a push poll.

There is, however, push questions in a poll. A push question is a legitimate way for survey researchers to measure anticipated public attitudes on events that have not yet occurred or to test messages that have not yet been aired.

What is commonly called "push polling" is not really polling at all.

Polling means you're calling a representative sample of voters to get information from them for research purposes. So-called push polling means you're calling voters to get information to them for political purposes.

So, when the media - and now the candidates - use the term push polling, what they really mean is an advocacy phone call that is dishonestly disguised as a poll so that the voter does not know the true source of the call. But because the term is now so distorted, and is incorrectly used to cover so many things, it's hard to even follow the current dispute in the South Carolina GOP primary involving the alleged use of the practice by one of the campaigns.

We'll never end bad campaign practices if we can't define right from wrong. And what we're getting from the players in this election only makes matters worse.

A push poll is a fake poll where information is 'pushed' to the survey taker and the information collected is not recorded for statistical analysis. It is acceptable and commonplace for campaigns to do negative surveys. A negative survey is a way to hone political messages against an opponent by finding out what weaknesses voters see in the opponent. These are perfectly acceptable as they do not leave the potential voter with an impression of the opposition they didn't start with.

Split hairs all you want regarding this issue, but no campaign has levelled a charge against another campaign as of yet regarding push polling, even though some push polling did occur against Clark in New Hampshire. Dean is on record to having done negative surveys in Iowa. If that was a push poll, the other campaigns and the media would not hesitate to call it such. Anyone else calling it a push poll is lying or attempting to intentionally mislead people to a negative conclusion regarding Dean on that issue.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. I was once "push-polled" in Oregon

There was a ballot measure about cleaning up abandoned mining sites, and of course, the mining companies were against it. I got a call asking if I was planning to vote for the measure, and I said that I was. The caller then asked if I would still be for it if I knew that Senator Packwood was against it. I said that knowing this would make me even more firmly against this. Then the caller asked if I would still be against if I knew that such and such a professor of chemistry at Oregon State was against it, and so on and so on.

Finally I asked who was sponsoring this call. The caller got flustered and said that she didn't know. She was located in Philadelphia, worked for a company that was hired by a lot of campaigns, and was just reading off a script.

[bif]

2. Thius is how Bush destroyed McCain in SC

In the primaries in 2000. Sickening bastards. It's all detailed in Al Franken's "Lies."

[kensch]

3. Push Polling in VA

I came home last week to find my other half on the telephone and almost shaking with anger. He had gotten a 'push poll' which was trying to insinuate some very nasty things about a Democrat running (whom we have met by the way) for the Arlington VA County board.

He pretty forcefully told them ... 'this isn't a poll. You lied. You don't want my opinion. Who's paying for this call? Well I don't care what the Republican Party thinks' and he hung up.

The next evening...

The rats called back, and this time I took the call. 'We need to get some demographic information based on last night's call'

'Why on earth would I do anything to help the Republican Party?' I asked. 'We just need...' I cut her off.. 'I really don't care what you need. Don't call back.'

LAST NIGHT... they called again, but this time with a recorded message. An attack ad. On the night before an election, with some slimy xenophobic charge. I think it's the sleaziest election I've ever lived through, and it's only for the County Board. I expect next year's presidential election to be even slimier.

[WoodrowFan]

4. Which Candidate?

I'm in Fall Church, but live pretty close to Arlington.

[helleborient]

5. This is all why education is so incredibly important...

If you're informed, push polling has no effect.

It's up to us to make sure people are well informed.

Work, work, work!!!

Calling people "sheeple" and bemoaning the state of affairs accomplishes nothing.

[DrFunkenstein]

6. I Always Hated That Term

I learned alot in one moment. I told my mother that doing what my father did for a living - public works - was a dead end nightmare where you just watch your life slip by. She told me that some people enjoy working with their hands, and that my father loved his job.

My dad is one of the kind of folk that would be called "sheeple." No college, doesn't closely follow politics, read Shakespeare, etc. But I don't think "sheeple" respects the man my father is.

[LuminousX]

8. "Sheeple"

Is a sour grapes term. And you are right, it doesn't properly respect your father, the type of man who keeps this country going day-to-day.

Whenever someone calls people 'sheeple' it is because a group of people or the nation at large doesn't agree with their point of view or don't show the same level of enthusiasm for a particular thing as they do.

[helleborient]

15. Same as my parents...

But, you know, they raised some pretty incredible kids, in my estimation - and one is conservative, one pretty much avoids politics, and one leans strongly to the left.

Usually, my mother votes Democratic - she voted for Mondale because he seemed like a nicer person than Reagan - I thought that was honest and worth noting.

My father almost always votes Republican and has some strands of homophobia and racism.

But "sheeple" they are not...they are people just like all of us.

[SCantiGOP]

7. Lee Atwater invented it

He used it in a Congressional race in upstate SC in the late 70s. Max Heller's entire family was wiped out in the Holocaust; he made it to America, became a self-made millionaire, and had been a highly respected and effective mayor of Greenville for 2 terms. He was running for the Congressional seat against Carrol Campbell, who would later become Governor, and his henchman Atwater. Supposed pollsters would call and begin asking people questions. One would be, "Is your faith in Jesus Christ importatant to you?" (Keep in mind Greenville is the home of Bob Jones University.) Assuming the person said Yes, the pollster would appear to go off script and confide, "Well, you know, Max Heller is Jewish, and they don't accept that Jesus is our Lord." This happened several days before the election, and is credited with turning the very close election to the GOP. And, it is but one of the reasons, if Jesus is indeed the Lord, that Lee is burning in hell at the present time.

[blm]

9. Thankyou. Max was a friend of my spouse's family.

The fact is that push polling DOES encompass different aspects of negative polling. If a poll isn't used to reinforce negative perceptions of your opponent for the purpose of pushing them towards you, than why do it at all?

Ron Faucheaux has been a GOP "fixer" for years, maybe you were unaware of this when you use HIS definitions and his denial that push polling exists.

Lipstick on a pig.

[dsc]

10. as you have been repeatedly told

to make sure what you think is a negative is really a negative. To take one reacent well known example Mayor Street in Philadelphia has seen his fortunes rise in the face of an investigation. Usually that is a negative thing. I think Ratz wishes he would have polled on this before he tried to make hay about it.

[LuminousX]

11. More fuel for the fire

Legal definition as seen by the State of Maine

Reference Link
Title 21-A: ELECTIONS
Chapter 13: CAMPAIGN REPORTS AND FINANCES
Subchapter 2: REPORTS ON CAMPAIGNS FOR OFFICE

§1014-B. Push polling

1. Push poll defined. For purposes of this section, "push poll" means any paid telephone survey or series of telephone surveys that are similar in nature that reference a candidate or group of candidates other than in a basic preference question, and when:
1. Push poll defined.

A. A list or directory is used, exclusively or in part, to select respondents belonging to a particular subset or combination of subsets of the population, based on demographic or political characteristics such as race, sex, age, ethnicity, party affiliation or like characteristics; <2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>



B. The survey fails to make demographic inquiries on factors such as age, household income or status as a likely voter sufficient to allow for the tabulation of results based on a relevant subset of the population consistent with standard polling industry practices; <2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>



C. The pollster or polling organization does not collect or tabulate survey results; <2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>



D. The survey prefaces a question regarding support for a candidate on the basis of an untrue statement; and <2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>



E. The survey is primarily for the purpose of suppressing or changing the voting position of the call recipient. <2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>

"Push poll" does not include any survey supporting a particular candidate that fails to reference another candidate or candidates other than in a basic preference question.
<2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>

[blm]

13. Dean pushpolled then. The caller determines the voting preference

and if it was gephardt, Edwards or Kerry they were given a negative reinforcement of that candidate. Deal with the truth of what Dean's campaign did, will you?

"Push poll" does not include any survey supporting a particular candidate that fails to reference another candidate or candidates other than in a basic preference question.
<2001, c. 416, §1 (new).>

Those negative reinforcements in the poll "script" went BEYOND referencing a "candidate other than a basic preference question,"

[LuminousX]

12. Because I can't stop myself

South Carolinian legal definition

Reference Link

"Section 8-13-1355. (A)(1) For purposes of this section, a 'push-poll' is a paid telephone survey supporting or opposing any candidate for public office and conducted by or on behalf of a candidate or committee that:

(a) asks questions or gives statements relating to candidates for public office that state, imply, or convey information about another candidate's character, status, or political stance or record; and

(b) is conducted in a manner that is likely to be construed by the person receiving the call to be a survey or poll which uses an established method of scientific sampling and gather statistical data for entities or organizations that are acting independently of any political party, candidate, or interest group.

(2) A person who conducts a push-poll, as defined in subsection (A)(1), must, at the beginning of the call, disclose the name of the candidate or committee that paid for, sponsored, donated, or authorized the call.

(3) If the call is an independent expenditure, the disclosure shall also state that no candidate has approved the call.

(4) No person or organization shall state or imply false or fictitious names or telephone numbers when providing the disclosures required under this section

[LuminousX]

14. Cause it feels so good

Opinion research's definition

Reference link

A "push poll" is a telemarketing technique in which telephone calls are used to canvass potential voters, feeding them false or misleading "information" about a candidate under the pretense of taking a poll to see how this "information" affects voter preferences. In fact, the intent is not to measure public opinion but to manipulate it—to "push" voters away from one candidate and toward the opposing candidate. Such polls defame selected candidates by spreading false or misleading information about them. The intent is to disseminate campaign propaganda under the guise of conducting a legitimate public opinion poll.

The key difference between negative polling and a push-poll is a)the person sponsoring it is not identified, Dean was identified for the Iowa survey, and b) propaganda is used, lies and fabrications.

The differences are subtle, yet important, which is why none of the campaigns accused Dean's campaign of pushpolling.

[helleborient]

16. I'm curious...about the legal definitions...

Why are they defined?

Is there something that happens if one is found guilty of using push polling?

[LuminousX]

18. To be honest

I didn't dig down into the legislation far enough to see the penalties of it. Most of the legislation looked as though it just required who ever conducted the poll to say who the poll was being conducted for and to have contact information available if the person being polled asks for it.

[LuminousX]

17. In fact... no one else seems to think it was push polling in Iowa either

%3BLH%3A66%3BLW%3A420%3BGL%3A2%3BBGC%3A%23000000%3BT%3A%23ffffff%3BLC%3A%23C0C0C0%3BVLC%3A%23808080%3BALC%3A%23808080%3BAH%3Aleft%3B&domains=stygianlabyrinth.net&q=%22Howard+Dean%22+%22Push+Polling%22+Iowa&btnG=Google+Search&sitesearch=">Google Search: "Howard Dean" "push poll" Iowa