As the political craziness ramps up across the US for the 2024 election, voters will see more polls taken and more of their results. My advice: Don’t participate in them, and don’t even look at the results! As an ex-scientist, I understand a bit about sampling theory and predictions of future results from a few answers from those polled, but do we really want anyone, pollsters or politicians, to be taking our opinions and extrapolating them to predict election results?
I don’t care if you’re a right-wing MAGA maniac, middle-of-the-road voter (the centrist part of both parties plus independents), or a left-wing radical who thinks AOC and Bernie Sanders are the saviors of humanity, your opinions should be expressed at the ballot box and not to some geeky pollster (often some young polisci student from a college more known for its polling than academic achievements—their students represent cheap labor). Polling science all too often is simply a good example of an oxymoron!
What I’m pleading for you to do is become part of that great “silent majority” that shifts right or left from center in any election but generally doesn’t stray far from the middle. You’re the ones who determine election results simply because your numbers are greater, and you can drive the pollsters crazy by being unpredictable and—here it comes!—true democrats, as in believers in American democracy. You’re the ones who listen to and read about all the political twists and turns politicians try to get your attention and then make up your own minds. By doing so, biases in the pollsters’ sampling are eliminated because your numbers are so large and how you’ll vote is indeterminate. In short, one voter responsibility is to drive the pollsters nuts! In fact, don’t even let on which party you belong to or which candidate you favor. That just helps the pollsters, and they’re scum! They make money interviewing you, not vice versa. And your privacy is you most valuable possession!