In the past few weeks, Democrats have been talking up former Rep. Jim Slattery and his chances of defeating GOP Sen. Pat Roberts in the fall. Republicans, of course, say that Roberts is in good shape and that this is an uphill battle for Democrats. The result has been a volley of polls—with a twist.
As long-time subscribers know, we are not fans of automated interview polls, in which a recorded voice conducts the interview, leading respondents through a series of push-button choices. We don’t publish them and don’t factor these types of surveys into our assessments of races. And, while most professional pollsters and political strategists are somewhat intrigued by the technology, they appreciate the inherent methodological flaws, not the least of which is that there is no way to verify who is actually taking the poll. We know one political journalist, a white male in his late 30s, who routinely identifies himself as a 20-something, Republican Latina.
Despite the flaws and the fact that political science has yet to embrace automated interview polls, sometimes called robo polls, as
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