Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1936-10-08
GETTING DOWN TO
"RRASS TACKS'
THESE STRAW T

Straw votes; presidential polls
Who's high; who's low what do they
mean anyhow in determining the fna
outcome? That's what everyone would
like to know. There is a wide diver
gence of opinion as to the significance
of the dozens of polls being conducted
by various agencies throughout the ma
ton. On the one hand there are those
who point to the Literary Digest poll:
of past years in which they have re-
Elected the outcome of the elections
with almost infallible accuracy; while
on the other, unwilling to accept the
trend of public opinion indicated by
these polls, people contend that vote:
sent to the magazine publishers up to
this time fail to include all classes, be-
ing confined largely to one particular
group or another. 1t is pointed out fol
instance that Landon's commanding
lead in the poll up to this time is due
principally to the reason that (and
shown bv the Digest's own tabulation)
the vote is shown to have come very
largely from those who voted for
Hoover in 1882" Then too. it is argued
that the votes are from among the
white collared' group, and fail to
make a representative showing of Ell
Their industrial or agricultural classes
And while the Digest poll shows
Landon in the lead by a wide mar
gin, others, and surely as equally re-
liable, reverse this order and give
Roosevelt the lead in the nationwide
straw vote. The poll of the Institute of
Public Opinion, for example, conduct
ed through metropolitan newspapers
throughout the country in its last tab
ulation shows Roosevelt leading in the
nation with 50 per cent of the total
votes cast, while Landon has Al per
cent, the balance being distributed in
negligible totals to other party candi-
dates such as the Union party, Com
munist ant Socialist. Significant too in
this poll is the fact that, instead OF
get poll has, it has been continuously
compiled during the past IL months.
The Digest poll shows Landon leading
in Montana, for instance, while the
IPO vote gives Roosevelt a 3 to 2 lead
Which is more nearly correct?
Only by election tabulationS after
November 3 shall we be able to defn-
itelv answer that question. But re-
CARELESS Of the outcome, we sometimes
wonder if there is not a danger that
these polls become not to indi-
cate the trend of public opinion, but
rudders to guide it in predetermined
paths. There is an old adage, nothing
succeeds like success" In political
terms this could well read, everyone
likes to vote for a winner" and Just
there lies the danger of bad prece-
dent in conducting presidential polls.
The advance sampling and cross-sec-
ton of public opinion cannot possibly
be all inclusive and at best is a far cry
from actual election, but it is easily
conceivable hat its result might be-
come a factor strong enough to inf1u-
ence a sufficient number of "band wa
gon" riders to actually determine the
complexion of an election.
H*
In the first pl~ace-though there is
no implication that it has been done in
any of the major polls as yeti would
be comparatively easy to six" a straw
vote of such vast proportions. This
would be done, not in the counting or
tabulation of returns, but in the SIM
pie selection of the people to whom
ballots are sent, selecting for the most
part at least those people whose pol
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