A 15-year-old Iowa resident filed with the FEC some time ago, saying he is running for President and that his name is Deez Nuts. He wrote Public Policy Polling to include him in some presidential polls, so PPP complied, and Nuts did well. Many readers have e-mailed me links to stories about this. Here is the most comprehensive one.
Is the person Dee IS NUTS ???
Another summer distraction or what ?
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
PPP likes to include joke questions in their polls.
The cross-tabs are pretty interesting. Nuts has a 2% favorable rating among those surveyed by phone, and 20% among those surveyed by internet. It is illegal to use automated polling of mobile phones (it is legal if you have a live surveyor, but that is expensive, especially when most people hang up). PPP tries to compensate by internet polling, attempting to match voters. For example, if a mobile phone number corresponds to a 23 year-old male, who parts their hair in the middle, they will find a 23 year-old male who parts their hair in the middle, who has agreed to participate in an internet poll.
In this case, it appears that a written survey produces a different response than one one conducted over the phone.
Self-described moderates were much more likely to express an opinion about Nuts favorability, than those who said they were (somewhat or very)(liberal or conservative).
This was also true of younger voters, but this might be tied to being more likely to be polled via the internet.