Polling company employee pleads guilty to fraud (Liebermen etc.)

[donsu]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--pollfraud0919sep19,0,2683714.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut


An employee of a company that conducted campaign polls for President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other political candidates pleaded guilty Tuesday to making up poll results, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Darryl Hylton, 42, of Hamden pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in Bridgeport to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The Guilford-based company, DataUSA, is now known as Viewpoint USA.

Hylton admitted that he conspired to falsify survey and polling results to meet deadlines or other requirements that DataUSA otherwise could not meet. He also admitted that he directed other DataUSA employees to falsify results in a variety of ways, including changing demographic information, such as gender, to satisfy client requirements.

Hylton faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced on Dec. 11.
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I take poll results with a grain of salt

[acmavm]

1. I do too. You know the results are cooked when they show

blivet at 44% approval.

[patrice]

2. I'd recommend even more salt than that.

They've got polling down to such a "science" anymore, that you can pretty much order up the kind of results you'd like to use for whatever.

It's all in how the questions are phrased, what order they are presented in, and how the sample group is selected and most people don't know enough about science to critique the methods.