How accurate are polls about race?

[_Jumper_]

I ask this because I stumbled onto this:

"When white voters were questioned by white pollsters... they favored Republican Marshall Coleman (a white candidate) by 16 points. But when whites were telephoned by interviewers with recognizably black intonation, they leaned to Douglas Wilder (a black candidate) by 10 points".

Obviously, I realized they would not be completely accurate because some people would just say whatever they thought the pollster wanted them to stay. However, I never thought the polls would be inaccurate by such a large margine as 26%. Was this an anomaly or is this par for the course?

[gottaB]

1. Curious. Do you have a citation?

I did a perfunctory google and dug up this story on the same topic.

This look at polling bias has some good insights, and citations.

Apparently the Wilder/Coleman race was notable because even though Wilder polled better than Coleman, Coleman squeaked away with it.

What's your source?

[gottaB]

2. Finkel, Guterbock, and Borg?

Or,

Finkel, S.E. 1991. "Race-of-Interviewer Effects in a Preelection Poll: Virginia 1989" Public Opinion Quarterly 55:3:313-30.


I could probably shouldertap a copy, but I'd like to see the info publicly available online.