AOL Poll

AOL is running a poll right now in their news section asking who users would vote for in the Presidential race. The numbers are increasing astronomically and 10,000 people have voted in the last 3 minutes.

I find their polls to be fascinating because of the number of participatants. While clearly not scientific, it's still interesting to see the results. I don't really like reading polls that contain results of "173 likely voters" simply because that could be too easily manipulated by calling people in a certain area etc. The AOL poll is more far reaching so anyways here's the results so far, I'll edit it as the numbers change.

If the election were held today, who would you vote for?
George W. Bush 52%
John Kerry 41%
I don't know 4%
Ralph Nader 3%
Total Votes: 396,870

[edit on 6-15-2004 by Djarums]

lol nader is 1% below "i dont know"

lol oh i love that!

is there an "i dont care" option?


i saw this poll and chose not to pariticipate i find polls are unreliable and often inaccurate.

amusing but nothing with enough weight that should influence anyone.

and yeah keep us up to date...this is gonna be amusing i think.

although i find bush's current 11% lead disturbing since so many claim to hate the guy.

must those chads again huh? i demand a recount!

Can people vote twice? If so, it would be more likely the pro-Bush people are trying to hype him up I second the recount!

I wasn't able to vote twice. After you vote once, even if you close the page and open it again it comes up that you've already voted. Cookie I'm assuming. I suppose you can manipulate that like anything else online, but it was still fascinating to see more than 200-500 people involved in a poll.

Do many of you guys use AOL? I personaly found it the worst internet service I have ever used, terrible features and a horrible browser. They also sponser Mr. Bush. . .

Originally posted by Jamuhn
Can people vote twice? If so, it would be more likely the pro-Bush people are trying to hype him up

I second the recount!

jeez logic tells me of this is possible anyone could be "ballot stuffing" give me a break.

even if this was an attempt at a joke it was a poor one.

and it if been like their other polls no you cant vote twice.

infact i voted (i voted i dont know as i dont feel like actually participating in this dstupod poll) and no you cant vote twice. i checked to make sure. unless its a cookie you can erase you cant vote twice.

Yea, it was a joke, not really trying to make a good one. Just wanted to get some reactions out of people. If you didn't like Bush, I'm assuming it would be a little funnier...

Earthtone, I do use AOL sometimes.

I got an account with them in the mid-90s because quite honestly it was easy. Unfortunately it was also expensive until they got the unlimited plan. When I got DSL for home the only reason I stayed with AOL was really because of the sheer amount of people I talk to online that have me in their address book etc and the laziness keeping me from wanting to change that for everyone I know. Too annoying. Yes they are mostly bloat-ware, but what can ya do

well thats what the jokes forum or the mud pit is for. this isnt the mud pit.

ok i gotta admit, i voted i dont know because i wanted to see i dont know jump up another percent point to make nader look bad.

i just dont like the guy. i dont like the other two either but nader really chaps my butt. great consumer advocate, sucky politician wannabe.

Nader was excellent as consumer advocate. He's the type of person who I'd call in the middle of the night if i got sold rotten fruit. Nice of him to fight for the people back when he was relevant. Now that perhaps age has ravaged his brain I think he's become more like a cartoon character. Not a cute cartoon character, an annoying one who you hope Acme would make a device to get rid of.

I suppose that one problem that you could have with an online poll is that it can only be taken by those who are fortunate enough to have a PC and be able to afford to pay for internet access, so it isn't necessarily a good representation of the population. It's seems to me that a whole group of people would be left out of being able to express an opinion so how can it really be an accurate gauge of how people feel?

Well there it is...............AOL says Bush's the winner.............

Lets save the money to help pay down the national debt and cancel the election

Get a life...............an AOL poll! REALLY, now.

Originally posted by pantha
I suppose that one problem that you could have with an online poll is that it can only be taken by those who are fortunate enough to have a PC and be able to afford to pay for internet access, so it isn't necessarily a good representation of the population. It's seems to me that a whole group of people would be left out of being able to express an opinion so how can it really be an accurate gauge of how people feel?

this can also be said of those who can afford a phone. yes a phone is cheaper but computer arent out the grasp of most people, you can even access the internet at your public library now.

so how about those TRULY poor people who cant afford a phone and cant participate in the "real" polls held by CBS ABC NBC CNN and countless other alphabet soup media companies? can we say THEIR polls are accurate if we apply the same logic? no we cannot. therefore phone services receivers can be considered "priviledged" by those who cant afford one.

[edit on 14-6-2004 by ThePrankMonkey]

Gm, oops it doesn't say zogby or quinnipiac in front. I guess the fact that it says AOL in front makes it not legit?

Fact is it was an open, click-if-you-want poll. As I said at the beginning it was under no circumstances claiming to be scientifically correct. It was intended to see what people were thinking. The results were interesting considering somewhere in the area of 400,000 people "voted".

I was in no way looking for criticism of an ISP, I was sharing something I found interesting. That's all.

By the way, anyone who's ever worked on a political campaign, particularly in NY, Los Angeles or Washington probably nearly spit their drink out seeing anyone imply that any form of poll whatsoever is "fair". Do you think zogby and quinnipiac etc are calling Mom and Pop Smith from the Heartland? Sorry, not how it works. Polls are a pretty carefully created tool.

[edit on 6-15-2004 by Djarums]

Originally posted by Djarums
Gm, oops it doesn't say zogby or quinnipiac in front. I guess the fact that it says AOL in front makes it not legit?

Well, the fact that AOL donate to Mr. Bush himself, you could say that there is a large chance of a 'conflict of interests' with AOL doing this poll. Maybe it is correct, I don't know!

The AOL polls are bunk, but not for the reasons people are saying. Not because AOL has an agenda, or not enough people have computers (which is around 70% I believe), or any of that stuff.

It's the SAMPLING METHOD ERROR called SELF SELECTION.

You can conduct an accurate and representative web poll by inviting a pre-screened and representative cross section of the universe to participate in a CLOSED poll (though I wouldn't recommend it for political polling), but that's not what AOL does.

They generate content as in a news story, then ask what do you think?

So all that can be said of this poll is something hokey like among those with computers, internet access and using AOL that were initally attracted to click through on a particular news item between the dates of x and y, and then agreed to voice their opinion in an online poll....

Crap. Doesn't matter if they get 100,000 respones. That's just a bigger pile of crap. But an established Marketing Research firm abiding by the quantitative and ethical guidelines of the MRA and applying the laws of statistical theory CAN conduct an accurate (+/- stated MOE) poll with as little as a few hundred CATI (tele) responses, though everyone always prefers more... budget permitting.

I don't have any software handy to run the confidence level difference in say 400 representative interviews and 4000 from the same universe, but it's not as big as you'd think. (I may download one off the Burke website and post the differences later). But unless some segmentation analysis is required (as in Alabama males that attend church regularly and like Nascar) then after so many interviews, you're just wasting money.

What I can't stand though are these on-line hacks that ruin the credibility of the entire polling industry. Bill O'Reilly is a big violator IMO. He bases news stories and editorial opine on what HIS VIEWERS think. Granted, all these sheisters cite the caveat: NOT SCIENTIFIC, but I think it should be stronger, as in...THIS IS BUNK!

I'd love to outlaw non-scientific polling but that's another can of worms.

Last pet peeve. When you do see a legitimate poll as in Gallup. Don't dismiss it because USA TODAY paid to put their name on it and report the results. That has NOTHING to do with the outcome of the poll.

But with AOL's self administered stuff... Crap.

I hate AOL I got a lawsuit against their illegal use of credit card charges. They are bios and none reliable.

Look the fact is, no matter what poll you look at, 90% of them are going to have Bush as the favorite to win the next election. Why? Most Americans have been manipulated by the Bush Administration before and more so since 9/11. It doesn't matter if we think Bush is responsible. The bottom line is most people think Bush is a great president and that he hasn't done anything wrong. My mom is voting for him and she says if there is another terrorist attack that will encourage her even more. Is there anything we can do at this point? No. I've tried and have told to keep my mouth shut and not utter a word about to anyone I know. It's sad now to think that there is no turning point in this world controlled by dictators like Bush.

Originally posted by marg6043
I hate AOL I got a lawsuit against their illegal use of credit card charges

Way to go marg! Did you win some money of those bastardos?

Originally posted by earthtone
Do many of you guys use AOL? I personaly found it the worst internet service I have ever used, terrible features and a horrible browser. They also sponser Mr. Bush. . .

I hate AOHell. Horrible browser like you said. This of course is when I was using dial-up and took forever just to get on. I just kept getting a busy signal that I got sick of hearing.