What PBS has to say about the Sarah Palin Poll
Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 11:58AM John Siceloff, Executive Producer of NOW on PBS, posted his comments and a recent update about their 'now' (in)famous poll "Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?" and its legitimacy:
http://www.pbs.org/now/palin-poll.html
Here is an excerpt of yesterday's update:"As of October 15th, the Palin poll had received over 52 million votes. We've received inquiries about why the percentages in the poll results have not changed much in the last couple of weeks. There's a simple answer. There are so many votes now that even the hundreds of thousands of new votes each day don't have much of an effect on the overall totals.
Another question is about math. As of October 15th, the "Yes" answer had 49%, the "No" answer had 49% and the "Not Sure", 0%. The question is why these numbers don't add up to 100%. Here's the reason: the poll software rounds the results down to the nearest whole number. The "Not Sure" is less than one percent, so it rounds down to zero. The rounding-down is why why the numbers may not total 100%.
With all the questions--and answers--about the percentages and the math, it's easy to take a further step and regard the results as accurate and scientific. Not so! The Palin poll is a measure of voter interest and mobilization in the closing weeks of the campaign. It should not be taken as an accurate barometer of the views of the wider public about Sarah Palin's qualifications."
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