Election Polls...are they skewed?

Lately, all you see about the election is the wide variation present in each poll. There are about 10 or 12 different polls. Some polls are done by CBS, NBC, NYT, Gallup and Rasmussen. Whether the polls are conducted by individual pollsters or another group the end result is a large discrepancy between these poll’s results. Some results will show Barack Obama up by 13 points while others show him up only by 4 or 5 points. This begs the questions:

- How are these polls conducted?
- Who conducts these polls?
- How is their sampling statistically accurate?

The concerns people have about these polls are as follows:
- Over sampling of individuals who are pro or con one side. Most times you do random sampling but people are claiming that they are over sampling areas that are mostly populated in favor of one side.
- There is a pre-bias of the people doing the polling. Fore example: The New York Times has come out and said they are for Obama, so obviously their polls are going to reflect the candidate they are supporting.

So how is a person supposed to get a sense of what polls to pay attention to if they are so skewed. Apparently in order to get a much better sense of who is ahead in the presidential race you would take the highest poll and the lowest poll for either candidate and just throw those numbers out. Then take the remaining numbers and average them.

Some people put more weight on the independent groups that aren’t affiliated with anyone because theoretically there isn’t any biased there.

The important thing as a voter is to choose a candidate that reflects your values and don’t let the statistics of polls sway your vote.