This year, three candidates will be on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Indiana: Democrat Joe Donnelly, Libertarian Andrew Horning, and Republican Richard Mourdock. Rasmussen Reports recently did a poll for this race, but the question it asked is, “If the 2012 election for U.S. Senate were held today, would you vote for Republican Richard Mourdock or Democrat Joe Donnelly?”
Rasmussen then reported the results: 42% for each of the two major party nominees, 2% for “some other candidate” and 14% undecided. It seems self-evident that if a polling company wants accurate results, it should display the same choices to respondents that actually appear on the ballot. In 2010, when Indiana held a three-candidate race for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat, the Libertarian nominee, Rebecca Sink-Burris, polled 5.41%. Thanks to PoliticalWire for news of the poll.
This is standard operating procedure in the polling business, isn’t it? That doesn’t make it right, but it’s far from surprising.
Is not Rasmussen Reports a pro-GOP polling business? You certainly don’t give your opponent – especially a 3rd party opponent – any chance to increase his or her standing in the polls. This is not honesty, but obviously these people don’t care about honesty in polling – only in what sways those voters who like to be “for the winner.” How sad. It affects negatively our political image in the nation. There ought to be federal law which requires any polling company which uses the government airways, the post office, or anything regulated by the federal government in reporting such polling to the public to have to include all candidates listed on the ballot who may win votes and influence the outcome of the election. But don’t hold your breath. We know who controls politics in this nation.
According to several sources, Horning’s candidacy as well as that of independent Jack Rooney are speculative and are not yet official candidacies. Therefore, the Rasmussen poll is accurate.
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=507745
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G12/IN
#1, there really is no standard. Polls are all over the map on this variable. I have seen some polls that mentioned half a dozen choices to respondents.
Too difficult for the MORON pollsters to have a copy of the ballot [aka sample ballot] in front of them when doing the alleged polling ???
#3, the Indiana Libertarian Party nominated its statewide candidates in April, and they are officially candidates for November. They are on the ballot already. The Jack Rooney petition, on the other hand, almost certainly will not succeed.
@6 The list put out by the Secretary of State’s office two days ago doesn’t list any Libertarian Party candidates. I know the LP has ballot access in IN and they nominated their candidates, but if the SoS’s office isn’t listing them as official then Rasmussen can’t be expected to include them in their polling.
#7, the list put out by the Secretary of State is not a candidate list for November. Neither Indiana nor any other state has certified its candidate list for November. The Democratic and Republican Parties haven’t chosen their national tickets yet, and even informally, no one knows who the Republican vice-presidential nominee will be.
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