Throughout the election campaign, polls after polls showed Governor Bush leading Gore. It all depends on who is conducting the poll, how the questions were framed and asked, who participated in the polling, and the economic and racial background of the participants. For instance, according to ABC Nightly news cast, those who were polled immediately preceding the second Gore and Bush televised presidential joint appearance were republicans. Thus, the poll showed Bush won the debate. Telephone survey that was used in the presidential polling forecast may be unreliable and skewed.
Telephone interview is the fastest, cost efficient way to conduct a survey.
When a substantial proportion of the population has no access to telephones, the sample tended to over-represent those who were relatively well off who could afford a telephone. In effect, the percentage of African Americans and perhaps, the Hispanics that participated in telephone survey, as being utilized in the present survey is minimal, especially when compared to the proportion in the general population. This group of electorates vote overwhelmingly Democrat and are most likely to reside in the urban areas. Throughout the electioneering campaign, Gore was reported to lead Bush only once and it lasted for a very short time span. But the election result have shown that all along, vice president Gore had an invisible and undocumented lead over Bush in the poll, again not reflected by what was repeatedly presented to the American public through the media.