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Street Polling: Any Takers?

Submitted by Oroboros on Wed, 12/19/2007 - 11:36

Daily Paul Liberty Forum

I got this idea from a brilliant post here on the DP by FreeMe, who actually did this in their town:

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/15440

I wonder if it's possible to carry out in a larger, organized way. I realize that one must hire Zogby or its ilk in order to have a "legitimate" poll in the eyes of the media. But what if that weren't the point? Can we collect volunteers in dozens of cities to talk to 10-20 people each? What if we were to get a name from each person to keep out multiple votes? If we got 100 people from around the US to wear a button/shirt/hat/booth that said something like "PoliticalOpinions.com" or anything like that (we could make a site), and stand in the mall or the corner collecting the answer to the question: "Who are you going to vote for in the 2008 presidential race?" and nothing else, I bet we could get at least 1000 answers. We could then send the name-sheet totals to one location for tabulation and then publish the result to all the Paul sites. This wouldn't necessarily have a media impact, but it would give RP supporters a very good idea of the *real* current support level RP has among the average person. It would be important for the pollsters *not* to display any RP support during the collection of answers, to keep it fair. I think this would be a huge boost to the morale of the RP Base, and would give us a solid idea of how far we have left to go. There may also be a group that does this for a living, that we could hire to use *our* questions and not the branching, "weed-out" Zogby questions.

take to the streets!

Submitted by JKap on Wed, 12/19/2007 - 11:50. Permalink

I like this idea not only because it could provide some insight into the real consensus of the American Public, since Old-Stream Media-blessed polling methodologies are at best outdated and at worst manipulated, but because the act of one person asking another person about their preference for President gets people talking and thinking about it.

There would also be an opportunity to gather consensus on a more micro (as opposed to macro) level. All OSM polls are either state or national, but in this case, if enough people got involved, the results could be broken out by county/city/neighborhood.

If the project/polling were conducted in a polite, professional and unbiased fashion, the results could be very useful. Thanks!

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"...a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -John F. Kennedy

Involve local media up front?

Submitted by freemarketeer on Wed, 12/19/2007 - 11:45. Permalink

Why not invite local reporters to join in? Maybe get a little camera crew out there? That way, the local news organizations will know that the answers were collected in a bias-free way and they could get a scoop on what was really happening in their city. Seems like local media is more receptive to discussing all of the candidates than the national dinosaurs are.

Truth

Submitted by Oroboros on Wed, 12/19/2007 - 11:48. Permalink

This is a good idea. Knowing people, they give things a chance when there are cameras involved. If a news crew was on site, it could bring people to the table to put in their opinion. Either way, we need to create a name and site for a non-partisan polling group that could do this. I will start work on it if people are interested.

Colony... Confederation... Republic... Nation-state... Empire... Colony...

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Colony... Confederation... Republic... Nation-state... Empire... Colony...