For the first time in my life, I was just called by a national polling organization, in this case Rasmussen, and asked about the presidential election. The questions were very interesting, and some a bit surprising.
For the record, I'm a 41-year-old lifelong Democrat living on Long Island in NY, and I have a listed landline telephone number. Also for the record, the CallerID for the Rasmussen recording was 214-283-1316, named "Wireless Calling." The robowoman said she was calling from Rasmussen and that she was going to conduct a brief survey on the election.
The questions started with my view on the direction of the country, then quickly moved onto the presidential candidates. Most of the questions were fairly straightforward (for whom I would vote, had I voted yet, was I certain I would, which party I felt could deal best with issues like the economy and jobs, national security and the "War on Terror," "social" issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, etc., healthcare, etc.), and the survey appeared to mix the Democratic and Republican option for the first slot (button #1).
What intrigued me, though, was a series of questions that (to the best of my recollection) went like this:
Senator Barack Obama has called for his supporters to take the day off from work or school on Tuesday to help with get out the vote efforts. Press 1 if you agree with this idea, press 2 if you disagree, or press 3 if you are not sure.
Will you be taking the day off from work or school on Tuesday? Press 1 if you agree with this, press 2 if you disagree, or press 3 if you are not sure.
Do you think that, in these challenging economic times, it is a good idea to tell people to take the day off from work or school? Press 1 if you agree with this, press 2 if you disagree, or press 3 if you are not sure.
The survey went on to ask my view of a national holiday for Election Day, and weekend voting to make it easier for people to vote.
I was actually somewhat disturbed by the questions about the Obama "day off" request, since they did not put the request in the context of asking those who had the option of taking the day off to do so. From the wording of the question, it made it seem (at least to my possibly over-sensitive ears) that the implication was that Senator Obama was asking people to jeopardize their jobs just to get him elected, which obviously is not what the campaign means. Unfortunately, I could not provide any verbal feedback to the robowoman on the question, and chose instead to give "not sure" as my answers.
That said, it was still pretty exciting for a recent political junkie like myself (when asked by Ras how I'd rate my interest in the election, I maxed out on 9, following it intensely every day) to be part of the anonymous, representative sample. So watch for me in tomorrow's Rasmussen press release, and here's hoping I don't just end up in the "margin of error." {ProfJonathan}
EDIT: Wow, the Rec list! Much obliged, and remember, GET OUT THE VOTE!