January 20, 2005

The real reason the exit polls were wrong?

A study shows the exit polls skewed toward Kerry because the pollsters were so young. The theory is that younger people tended to vote for Kerry and younger people were more willing to be surveyed by young pollsters. The study was done by the research firms that designed the elaborate polling system. The young-pollsters theory ought to raise some suspicion, given that the firms have an interest in coming up with the least damning explanation for their miserable failure. The report asserts -- according to the NYT -- that "that the technical foundation on which their work was based was sound" and "that there was no evidence that the surveyors had embarked on any conscious effort to skew the vote." Whew! That's a relief!

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