Pollsters, Political Telemarketing and 'Push Polls':

Ensuring Voters' Opinions Count on Super Tuesday and Beyond

GLASTONBURY, Conn., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Presidential primary season reaches a climax with Super Tuesday, expect to hear reports about waves of push polls. Both the general public and targeted candidates are increasingly annoyed by push polls or political telemarketing, which often include negative -- even inflammatory -- information about a candidate. The media describe these telephone calls as "push polls" because they seek to "push" a certain candidate or position.

These are not legitimate polls being conducted for research purposes. Rather, they are persuasion calls: Quick sales efforts; not the collection of unbiased responses of legitimate polls or surveys.

"Not all calls with negative information are push polls," clarifies Larry Brownell, Executive Director of the Marketing Research Association (MRA). "Researchers and political campaigns often test the effectiveness of possible messages about opponents and even themselves. That's legitimate surveying, and citizens should feel confident about participating in such efforts."

MRA developed this tool to help voters distinguish between legitimate polls/message testing and push polls. Legitimate researchers would tell you it's not worth your time responding to a push poll. But if you want your opinion to count, respond to legitimate surveys.

    Legitimate polls/message testing...     "Push-polls"...

    ...Are generally five minutes or        ...Calls are generally 1 to 2
    longer.                               minutes long.

    ...Neither support nor oppose a         ...Are designed to persuade
    candidate/issue or information        people -- not to measure
    being tested; seek only to            opinion.
    collect unbiased information.

    ...Are based on scientific              ...Usually ask one or only a
    methodologies and use sound           few questions and then read
    sampling methods. Calls are           a statement (usually negative)
    governed by strict industry           about a candidate/issue. There
    ethics and standards.                 is no attempt at collecting
                                          opinions.

    ...Include questions regarding          ...Do not ask any personal - or
    respondent demographics.              demographic - questions, which
                                          could be used to validate data.

    ...The organization or call             ...The organization or call center
    center making the call is             making the call may not be
    clearly identified.                   Identified (or uses a phony name).

    ...Number of completed                  ...Call thousands of people
    interviews fall within the            regardless of demographics.
    range of legitimate surveys
    (between 300 and 1,500
    interviews).

The Marketing Research Association is the leading and largest association of the opinion and marketing research profession, a multi-billion dollar a year industry dedicated to providing valuable information to guide the decisions of companies that provide products and services to consumers and businesses. For more information, visit http://www.mra-net.org.