from Bill Still
Good evening, I’m still reporting on polls and fake polls.
USC/Daybreak Poll
The latest USC/Daybreak poll shows Donald Trump, after dipping below Hillary Clinton 2 weeks ago in a nationwide poll, is closing the gap once again. The latest numbers, Clinton 44.0%, Trump 43.4%.
“ABC” Fake Poll
One of the most noteworthy developments in this year’s election cycle is the appearance of fake news of every sort. It’s an epidemic that is sweeping every aspect of the news business that is not only eroding public confidence in the reliability of all news sites, but making it much harder to produce news stories.
The latest example is this purported ABC News Live online poll. Here is the current screenshot for this page, but just one hour ago these images were black & white only:
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An hour ago, the vote looked like this:
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One hour later, this is the purported tally:
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But if you click on these other headings, they are merely blank placeholders. Of course, maybe they will fill them with fake news by the time the evening is out as well.
Lastly, the URL address is close to the real ABC address, but not quite. Here’s the real page and the real URL.
LongRoom
Then there was the LongRoom Poll – purported to be a new style poll that calculated the skews of the various polls and removed them.
Well, it sounded good, but after about a week, the website suddenly disappeared never to be heard from again.
The Zip App
Finally, there is the latest addition to polling – the Zip App – a mobile only poll created by San Diego-based Crazy Raccoons.
The app poses questions and polls responses based on an average of 100,000 users daily.
So, despite the latest Real Clear Politics average that stands at Clinton 47, Trump 41.2%, the Zip App poll shows Trump winning in a landslide 64 to 36%.
According to Zip App co-founder Ric Militi:
“We’re not a poll. We’re a conversation, and 100% anonymous. People feel comfortable answering questions without fear of being bullied or being called a racist. People can express themselves safely, and you get a pure answer.”
I’m still reporting from Washington. Good day.