3. The proliferation of “robopoll” firms like SurveyUSA and Rasmussen Reports may in and of itself be a problem, or may exacerbate the other problems. About 60 percent of the polls in our database this year were conducted by automated polling firms. Some of them have achieved decent results in recent years. Rasmussen Reports and Public Policy Polling, for instance, have somewhat above-average track records, as measured by the accuracy of polls conducted close to Election Day. And SurveyUSA has had a considerably above-average performance.
But, automated polls are also associated with lower response rates. And some of the firms, like Rasmussen Reports, take other types of shortcuts, like conducting all of their polling in a single evening. Also, as we have mentioned, they almost never include cellphones in their samples. Therefore, it is open to question whether these firms can continue to perform on par with traditional pollsters.