At all levels of society, polling has major sway. Whether it’s a small poll of a small group to determine where everyone will be going for lunch, or one of whole states to determine who the next leader of the free world will be, it uses vote totals obtained from the polling process to give perspective on what the population deems to be the “right” decision. As is expected, however, the practice has its drawbacks - specifically, the inherent risks of weighting, selection bias, and decreased engagement - which endeavor to undermine the practice. In response, however, the industry has seen significantly positive growth in its online sector, leveraging new technologies like social media to improve the tool. Ultimately, this combination of faults
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One particular new method is the following: the winner of the election in question is determined by who can beat the other in a race against time with votes - in a “contest vote” of sorts. Specifically, people would visit a website at an announced time, log in with their voter registration information, and proceed to click a button corresponding to their candidate of choice. Meanwhile, the results are being broadcast on television networks (much like they are now), but they show the votes being submitted in real time. At the end of the period (one which will be decidedly shorter than it is currently), someone checks the amount of votes, and whomever has the lead wins the popular …show more content…
Without democracy, institutions (countries, specifically) would be free to make decisions that wouldn’t be in the public’s best interests - something that could have dire consequences. Therefore, the key question is not “should we get rid of polling?” but “how can we make polling better?”. As the old-fashioned phone poll is dying and being overtaken by the internet poll, it is difficult to chart the path of improvement. That being said, the companies and their ideas that have been mentioned are making significant headway. From Genic.Ai’s online engagement analysis, to Morning Consult’s massive yet precise and neutral poll, to the idea of using “rolling averages” in place of overall averages, progress is being made. The road to a fair and truly bias-free internet poll is a long one, but the industry is certainly on its
One particular new method is the following: the winner of the election in question is determined by who can beat the other in a race against time with votes - in a “contest vote” of sorts. Specifically, people would visit a website at an announced time, log in with their voter registration information, and proceed to click a button corresponding to their candidate of choice. Meanwhile, the results are being broadcast on television networks (much like they are now), but they show the votes being submitted in real time. At the end of the period (one which will be decidedly shorter than it is currently), someone checks the amount of votes, and whomever has the lead wins the popular …show more content…
Without democracy, institutions (countries, specifically) would be free to make decisions that wouldn’t be in the public’s best interests - something that could have dire consequences. Therefore, the key question is not “should we get rid of polling?” but “how can we make polling better?”. As the old-fashioned phone poll is dying and being overtaken by the internet poll, it is difficult to chart the path of improvement. That being said, the companies and their ideas that have been mentioned are making significant headway. From Genic.Ai’s online engagement analysis, to Morning Consult’s massive yet precise and neutral poll, to the idea of using “rolling averages” in place of overall averages, progress is being made. The road to a fair and truly bias-free internet poll is a long one, but the industry is certainly on its