With the post election analysis going on right now, there seems to be a ton of weight being put behind exit polling (so and so got x% of women voters, etc) to the point where they just are presented as fact. As early voting and mail-in voting increases around the country, aren’t those exit polls getting more and more unreliable? I don’t see that discussion happening anywhere and perhaps I have a misunderstanding of what an exit poll even is. I’ve never been polled in any way after voting myself and as I understand it polling is already not as reliable as they’re presented. So should we put as much trust into these exit polls?

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    13 days ago

    Not really.

    There’s have to be a population where a large amount not only voted that way, but when they voted that way it was statistically different.

    Like, there may very well be something where a population like women voted differently by mail because their husbands watch.

    But in my state someone is allowed to “help” so the couple in front of me the man voted, then went to the woman’s booth and “helped” her.

    All while outside the cops talked to a screaming red hatter who apparently had to turn his trump shirt inside out and when he did poll workers say the multiple hand guns in his waistband.

    Don’t worry tho, the poll workers let him skip the line and vote while the cops showed up and talked to him for 2 minutes before letting him drive off.

    So before you think of what shady shit may happen with mail in, you need to realize plenty of shady shit happens day of too.

    • rdrunner@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      13 days ago

      I don’t so much mean weird situations, but perhaps just the demographics get skewed. Now that I think about it, I perhaps have a dumber question:

      What the hell are exit polls are how are they conducted? The name implies they’re conducting with folks leaving the polls, but if they’re voting at home then how are they polled? This could also just simply boil down to why do we trust polls so much anyways

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        13 days ago

        Yeah, exit polling is literally asking people as they walk out of the polls

        This could also just simply boil down to why do we trust polls so much anyways

        Statistical analysis is a science.

        The problem is it’s not taught in k-12 and most never learn it in college

        So people don’t understand it, media represents it however they’ll get the most clicks/views.

        The problem with polling isn’t polling, it’s the media’s and viewers’ misinterpreting the results that’s the problem