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

skewed results?

[demonhold]

What does it matter in a democracy where near a 60% of the population with a right to vote simply does not bother to vote?

And the problem here is that most of the apathic percentage is the one that most could mean a change, the better educated, the most liberal...

No wonder that no Republican Gov ever bothers with campaigns in favor of participation among youth!!! Thus we see a great country going down the drain led by lobbies, armament interests and the most conservative branches of the different Christian sects...