Week 4-Election Post

One of the polls is on the front page of usaelectionpolls.com and its labeled "John McCain is forced to play defense in 13 states. It shows that John McCain has to play defense in states that George Bush won by double digits in 2004. In the poll it shows that Illinois has given Obama a 24% increase in a seven day average. He is up 56% to McCain's 32%. It also shows that Obama has had a 4% increase to bring it up to 48%-45% in his favor in North Carolina, a key battleground state. Another poll on the same site shows the amount of people in favor to Obama and McCain. It shows some interesting information as it has Obama edging out McCain in Florida and Ohio by 49.1% to 46.46% and 48.8% to 46.0. These are key states for Republicans.

On a washingpost poll it shows that Mrk Warner leads James Gilmore by huge amounts. They took a poll by asking people who would they vote for if the senate election was held today. Warner was the ovbious winner with 61% and Gilmore had 31% and 9% other.

They have a big role in modern elections because most people now have a computer and polls can be easily reached in the internet and it gives voters information on candidates. It also shows public opinion. It has a major impact on elec ions. It can either be bad or good. It can be good that it shows what people are thinking off. But it also can go negative also. For example if early polls show an early winner it might discourage people that would vote for the winner becuase they might be thinking that their vote doesnt count because their candidate already won or lost and they can't do anything about it.

For the most part they are accurate only if they have a large sample size as to reduce the margin of error. But their is still always a margin of error becuase of many factors such as people lying or the poll can be biased itself so it might give people the wrong data.