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Should polls even be given as much coverage as they are? And how likely are polls going to influence voters? I think we would want polls to be neutral when it comes to influence. Just another news statistics. Polls should not drive turnout or public opinion. But how do you make sure this happens? Will less reporting of poll results make them seem less important. Not only do polls seem to drive the news cycle, but they are a prime driver of campaign pledge drives. Candidates seem to believe that more contributions will help swing the polls towards them. Polls are not elections., but we almost treat them as such.

The sheer number of polls and the amount of reporting of poll results may make them seem more important than they are. The only thing that matters is the actual voting. Voters need to be encouraged to vote regardless of what the polls say and the news media needs to push that. I think it might also be nice to have polls that just tried to find out what issues were important to people without necessarily getting an opinion on those issues. That way, the public has an idea of what most people consider important and what may be at stake in the election. Those issues will be on the ballot indirectly and people should be thinking about what candidates will deliver on the issues important to them. And the media can question the candidates on those issues.

To the extent that polling is reported, it might also be nice to give a history of the accuracy of the pollsters in previous election cycles. But, I really think most poll results should be a hyperlink for the curious and not a headline. People should be free to ignore poll results and probably should. The focus should be on candidates and issues. Polls may encourage voters to become lazy, overconfident, desperate, or feeling hopeless. What we really want are involved voters who will vote whether the polls think their candidate has a chance or not.