WEEK #4 ELECTION POST

Polling! One of the most important ways to see what America is thinking in terms of Election '08. Recently in the Presidential Election, it is evident that Obama is in the lead that has reached double digits, giving hope to Obama supporters everywhere. However there is a lapse in data considering there are different polls. In this post, I will analyze current polls and their impact on the election.

Gallup Poll

Registered Voters:
Obama: 52%
McCain: 42%

Likely Voters (Expanded):
Obama: 51%
McCain: 44%

Likely Voters (Traditional):
Obama: 49%
McCain: 46%

The most intreresting thing about this specific poll is that they break the voters into categories. The registered voters poll is more legit than the other ones because these are people who are going to most likely vote and have prospects for voting, while the other two are based on how things have changed or how they are traditionally based with their party. I like how they classified the votes because it gives a broad exploration of what the country thinks and also gives more legitimacy to who is in the lead and who is not.

For More Information: http://www.gallup.com/Home.aspx

CNN Poll

Obama: 49%
McCain: 43%
Unsure: 8%

With the CNN poll, they are full flegged with pie charts and a map of the country that is cohesive with current state results. For example they have Virginia as blue because Obama is now in the lead in Virginia. What is interesting about the CNN Poll is that they do not classify their voters which could lead to more of an error because we don't know who votes and there could be voters in this poll who are not even registered or allowed to vote. I do however like the visual aspects of their website because it is easier to understand and follow.

For More Information: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/map/polling/

Senate Races:

VoteFromAbroad.org Poll

Virginia:
Mark Warner: 58%
Jim Gilmore: 29%

This site was similar to the CNN poll in which they have visual representaions of the results of recent polls. The weird aspect about the Senate race is that not every state has one, so it seems that it is not as an important election as it should be. I'm not surprised at these results because Warner has proabably had more experience than Gilmore and now that Obama has the lead in Virginia Polls it is not surprising that the Democratic nominee of Virginia, Warner, is in the lead as well.

For More Information: http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Senate/Maps/Oct20-s.html

SurveyUSA Poll

Norm Coleman: 41%
Al Fraken: 39%
Dean Barkley: 18%
Undecided: 2%

I like SurveyUSA because they focus on individual areas. For example this poll was taken in Minnesota. I also like how they break down different groups and their results. For example they separated by gender and 42% of females voted for Fraken while 36% of males voted for him as well. I think this method of polling really highlights voting based on certain categories such as gender and age, which could also help the validity of statistics now and in the future. This poll gives the knowledge of why and how people vote instead of just a simple "vote for your candidate" poll.

For More Information: http://www.surveyusa.com/

In all, the polls have margin error in common because we never know who votes in these polls and from now until Election Day, people's opinions could take a complete 180 or people might get to the polls and be unsure about who they were going to vote for. However, polling is still a great way to see the nation's viewpoint and can alter the way that people vote. This election shall be interesting...

Until next post...

Chanel

P.S. Vote on my poll on the right side of my page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!