[NTBKtrader]

I wonder how many false polls have swayed political decisions and Americans???


Pollster Pleads Guilty to Fraud

The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results.
Tracy Costin pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, 46, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced Nov. 30.

As part of her plea agreement, Costin agreed to repay $82,732 to the unidentified clients for 11 jobs between June 2002 and May 2004. DataUSA is now known as Viewpoint USA.

According to a federal indictment, Costin told employees to alter poll data, and managers at the company told employees to "talk to cats and dogs" when instructing them to fabricate the surveys.

FBI Special Agent Jeff Rovelli said 50 percent of information compiled by DataUSA and transmitted to Bush's campaign was falsified, the Connecticut Post reported Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Chang said on several occasions when the company was running up against a deadline to complete a job, results were falsified. Sometimes, the respondent's gender or political affiliation were changed to meet a quota, other times all survey answers were fabricated.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/07/D8K01L503.html

[Bleep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.haloscan.com/comments/ctpost/4298956/#214887]NEWSFLASH. The article itself is incorrect (what a suprise).[/b] (link)[/url]
DataUSA is NOT a "pollster" organization; it is simply a data collection facility used by various pollsters. It collects the data and passes it back to the pollster for analysis.
As a data collection job shop it takes no part in the design, analysis of data, or publication of results, just the data collection portion; it's just a call center.
The victims list in the actual case are the pollsters themselves. The $82K that she has to return is to them.
Don't blame the pollsters at all; they got the worst end of it, including all of the bad press.
None of this is typical in the industry, so don't jump to any conclusions.

[KrellEnergySource]

Not a pollster. Just a data collection agency.

That is, the subcontracted outsourced organization that does the work for the pollsters that most people consider 'polling'.

Doublespeak. Kind of like saying that a company in the US that designs and sells things built overseas by outsourced factories manned by people that don't work for the company is a "manufacturer". Then what is it those people in those outsourced factories are doing?

I agree with the poster's point that this report isn't reason to jump to a conclusion that all or most polling oranizations are crooked. But it is an eye-opener, to say the least.

[NTBKtrader]

OH ok so the pollsters aren't crooks just where they get their data from is from crooks. I feel so much better now.

Question to bleep; do you have a job that oversees other jobs? At my job when something I have responsibility for goes wrong I am at fault because it is my responsibility to make things happen right. It is also these pollsters RESPONSIBILITY (big word for some) to get the right and factual data. What happens when you analyze faulty data? Do you know the answer?

[rogerhb]

And what is the problem with that, if you pay a pollster surely you get what you pay for?

How do you quality control a pollster?

If it was an election that's a different matter, but public opinion polls? Market research? Telephone marketing? On principal, if cornered I give bogus answers, I have no truck nor contract with pollsters who ask me questions.