Return from the AAPOR Conference

by: dfa_lewis

Mon May 22, 2006 at 07:16:18 PM EDT

I'm back from the four-day AAPOR (American Association for Public Opinion Research) Conference in Montreal with a lot of information to digest. Polling is one of those sciences people love when it bolsters their opinions, and hate when it contradicts them. However, since the 2004 election cycle, many have attempted to discredit the use of polling in the political arena with the claim that it is not a science at all.

dfa_lewis :: Return from the AAPOR Conference

While there is agreement that polls can be flawed or even misused, the professional pollsters I spoke with take their responsibility to the public very seriously. Questions have to be "tested" in order to ensure that they do not skew results. The obligation to protect the anonymity of respondents must be safeguarded, even against legal subpoena. Elizabeth Liddle of the University of Nottingham (UK) called for "better education" for the public on polling - especially where it concerns exit polling and comparisons to official vote tallies. Mark Blumenthal (the Mystery Pollster) mentioned that although he had always downplayed privacy concerns in favor of greater public disclosure, in one small precinct in Ohio voters were matched to their votes based on demographic information.

The 2006 conference was not without controversy, the main one revolving around a session entitled Who Really Won Election 2004. One of the contentious moments came when a member of the audience asked who had paid for Elizabeth Liddle's trip to the conference as an opponent of the stolen election theory. Conference Chair David Moore explained that he had arranged for Ms. Liddle's appearance at AAPOR's expense so that members could hear "both sides of the issue", but that AAPOR had ~~also paid for Ron Baiman's trip~~ waived Ron Baiman's conference registration fee.

I'll have more on the AAPOR conference over the next few days, beginning with ~~the exit poll controversy~~ the New Jersey Senate race.

Poll

Was the 2004 Presidential election stolen?