Will Cellular Phones Skew Survey Results?

FriedEgg writes "Recently, many people have started to forgo traditional landline telephones in favor of cellular phones only. This presents a problem for telephone pollsters who are prohibited by the FCC from calling cell phones with automated equipment, and from calling people for whom receiving the call costs money. While they recognize the exclusion of cellular only users can skew their results, they're not yet sure how much... because they're unable to survey cellular only users to find out their demographic information. Some evidence does indicate the frequency of cellular-only is highest among 18-24 year olds, traditionally the hardest to survey anyway. If the problem grows worse, it's possible we could end up with a "Dewey Defeats Truman"-like situation where the telephone poll results were skewed because Truman supporters were less likely to own a telephone."

Comments

The results are bogus already ...

[Dark$ide]

Aren't the results of any phone survey skewed already. If someone calls me unsolicited I'll tell them to go away impolitely.

Haven't the Americans just got a 50 million list of folks who don't want to be called.

Do the folks who fit those two categories have a common demographic?

Won't matter much for elections

[Anonymous Coward]

The 18-24 demographic is the one least likely to vote anyway