October 27, 2006
Cellphone-only crowd growing, not yet a problem for pollsters
The cellphone-only crowd is not yet large enough and their views not different enough to affect the accuracy of traditional political polling, a new study suggests, reports Yahoo News.
"... The growth of the cellphone-only group has raised concerns among survey researchers that it would render obsolete the most commonly used polling method of contacting a random sample of the public on traditional landline phones.
Growth of the cellphone-only group may eventually reduce their differences from the overall population, said Scott Keeter, a survey researcher at the Pew Research Center.
The biggest differences found between landline phone users and cellphone only users involved their levels of political engagement.
Just 49 per cent of the cell-only users were registered voters, while 78 per cent of those in the landline sample were registered voters. That's another reason the cellphone only group has a minimal effect on political polling."
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