Suan Dusit sorry for flawed poll | Bangkok Post: news

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Suan Dusit sorry for flawed poll

Published: 6 Mar 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

Suan Dusit Poll says errors in its final poll in the lead-up to Sunday's governor election led the pollster to incorrectly predict that Pheu Thai candidate Pongsapat Pongcharoen would win.

In a letter signed by poll director Sukhum Chaloeysub, Suan Dusit Poll yesterday apologised to the public and to the media for the inaccurate results of its poll conducted on March 1-3.

"We accept the mistake and will look into the cause of the errors to improve the quality of our polls," Mr Sukhum said. "We will also ensure that every poll is well-planned and every piece of information will be double-checked."

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Sgtfletch
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Discussion 3 : 06 Mar 2013 at 21.013
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There are polls known as "push-polls" which try to move a voter in a certain direction...for example, the pollster might ask "did you know that so-and-so said this about that?" , drawing a "no" answer from the potential voter. Push-polls are decidedly different from a regular, impartial poll. However, even in a so-called "impartial" poll the questions can be asked in such a way as to favor one candidate over another. However, as I mentioned in an early comment of mine, polling is getting trickier because it is hard to predict voter turn-out, the voter can outright answer untruthfully, and it is getting harder to reach voters.
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koolbreez
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Discussion 2 : 06 Mar 2013 at 10.162
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It seems that with all but one pollster making such a large error in predicting the outcome, there was more at play than simply a flawed polling. I wonder how much money was involved for there to be such a huge error, by so many of the pollsters, except one.

It is reasonable for an error by one of the pollsters, but not all of them (except one), and not by such a large margin, a larger margin than allowed for in sampling error, with is usually within 5%.
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Victor
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Discussion 1 : 06 Mar 2013 at 09.011
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I think the cause of the poll's error was in the intention of the pollsters.
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