These sessions are designed to inform the convention delegates and prepare them for dialogues with the presidential candidates, which PBS and NPR will air this Saturday and Sunday. At the end of the Austin weekend, delegates will answer the same polling questions, in an effort to measure whether and how much their opinions shifted during the deliberative process. A deliberative poll is not meant to describe or predict public opinion,'' wrote Fishkin. Rather it prescribes. It allows a microcosm of the country to make recommendations to us all after it has had a chance to think through the issues.
Professional pollsters voice the loudest objections to deliberative polling.
This experiment will give the public a distorted view of what constitutes an opinion poll, and give polling another black eye,'' wrote pollster Warren Mitofsky in a symposium published by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Critics of deliberative polling describe several flaws in the experiment. They question whether the sample will be truly representative, whether the delegates' briefing materials will be unbiased, whether the publicity of the event or group dynamics will influence the outcomes. Connection to campaign Since the deliberative poll is the main focus of the event, just what role the candidates will play in the event remains unclear, particularly since commitments from the leading candidates have not been forthcoming. It would be nice at the beginning of the primaries to have some connection to the campaign dialogue.