D.D. 10/09/04

In today's News Sentinel, journalists still seem confused about the difference between a legitimate ballot testing poll, which does not violate ethical standards and a push poll, which does. Spinning by the candidates also hurts trying to sort out the true difference, since candidates are quick to label any poll which "hurts" them a push poll.

A true ballot test poll, which is usually taken in the form of a benchmark poll when a candidate decides to run for office will test "negatives" of each candidate. That's what Chris Oldham is talking about in the News-Sentinel article. For instance, if you knew your opposition voted for a tax increase, you might ask the question: If the choice in this election were between a person who voted for a certain tax increase and a person who was strongly against it, who would you vote for. While the answer may be obvious on a question like that, polling has long been used to test "message" where the reponse is not as clear.

For instance, President Bush knows that the International Criminal Court polls very negatively- and that is why he keeps bringing it up with regard to Kerry's support for it. But how could he know that without ballot testing?

Push polling, on the other hand is a poll designed, purposefully, to get votes. Most reputable polling places will refuse to conduct push polls, so they are usually done by a "phone houses," which can place many calls simultaneously to a select group of people inside a certain district. The purpose of these calls isn't so much to poll as it is to hide behind polling to throw out negative things about your opponent. By hiding under the guise of a political poll, push pollers (who are usually not pollsters at all), can make negative points about a particular candidate without being associated with a campaign.

So instead of asking about attributes without mentioning a candidate's name (after all in a true poll, you don't want to increase your opponent's name identification), like a "ballot test" poll does, a push poll will mention a particular candidate to associate a negative with that person. That's the difference. It's the media's fault for not advising of this fact and thus adding to the confusion by encouraging political campaigns to call most any poll which tests characteristics or ballot tests a push poll.