Granted it's pretty obvious that such polls suffer from self-selection and digital divide bias, but now there's
yet another reason to not trust them:
I subscribe to the campaign emails from Kerry, Bush, and Nader just to see how they do things. I just got an email from the Bush camp asking to go to the main news sites after tonight's debates and "make my voice heard".
# Immediately after the debate, visit online polls, chat rooms, and discussion boards and make your voice heard. The major news networks will all have internet polls after the debate. Make sure you vote in polls on: * MSNBC.com * FoxNews.com * ABCNews.com * CNN.com * and even CBS.
I don't like that, considering that these polls often get quoted ESPECIALLY on those news companies' TV stations. I say we should counter their attempts. Please feel free to visit these sites also. Also, if you have an account on one or some of the big blogs (like DailyKos.com, which supposedly gets twice as many non-unique visits per day as FoxNews.com), PLEASE post this message on their sites, and don't forget to mention that this is to counter the effort by the Bush campaign. If you would also like to get a copy of the email and are not subscribed to their mailing list, drop me a line at OffTheDome AT gmail D.0.T C0M
Having Freep or some independent site advocate doing this sort of thing is one thing, but having it as an actual campaign tactic by the campaign itself is a bit dubious. I figured it was worth mentioning, so if you see Bush doing remarkably well on online polls that might be why.