Can polls be automated?
A recent development is the use of automated polls. With this technology, the company’s computer dials telephone numbers at random and then plays a message recorded by a professional radio announcer. The message asks whoever answers the demographic and political questions, to which they respond by pressing buttons on the telephone. The percentage of people who hang up quickly when this technique is much higher than when a human being conducts the poll. Nevertheless, SurveyUSA and Rasmussen rely heavily on this technique because it is fast and cheap, allowing them to charge less than their competitors in the polling business. Traditional polling companies criticize the methodology on the grounds that it does not adequately filter out teenagers too young to vote but definitely old enough to play games with the system. Chuck Todd, editor of the Hotline, a daily political tipsheet was once called by SurveyUSA and was effortlessly able to pass himself off as a 19-year old Republican Latina,
