I was polled tonight by McGuire Research..

Have any of you been polled by this outfit?? The poor guy calling, said it would only take a few minutes.. It took almost 45 minutes.. Obviously this was a poll primarily about California initiatives, but they may do other polling..

Fist off , I must say, that some of my answers may be a bit disconcerting to the pollsters.. and here's why.. The polltaker had to READ the initiative in its entirety, ask for an opinion, and then ask separate questions about key parts of the initiative..

Sounds ok so far, right???.... WRONG.. THE GUY READ AT A 2nd or 3rd GRADE LEVEL..

pronounced bribery...breebree
initiative.........intive
political.........polticle
criminal..........crymal
..

I spent most of the time trying to figure out what the hell he was saying.. and before people jump on me, he did not sound like a foreign speaking person.. When he spoke to me apologizing about how these were "hard words", he sounded like any kid you would see at any mall .. He did sound young..

So ..take heart when you read or hear about poll results... I wonder if anyone will make heads or tails of my responses..

I am tempted to call or write the pollster, but I really do not want to get this poor kid fired:(




History..
http://www.mcguire-research.com/

Staff
Michael Wm. McGuire - President
Michael Fairbank - Senior Associate
Brian Towslee - General Manager
Cindy Guo - CATI Program Manager
John Zhao - Web Survey Programmer
Robin Leavy - Data Manager
Matt Schroeder - Programmer Analyst
Pat Funes - Account Executive

Apparently there is legislation being crafted to force businesses and CEOs to report any discrepancies or THEY will be criminially liable..

and another one I remembered was regarding the auto industry to combat high pressure sales..this one would mandate a FULL refund within 72 hours..no matter what the reason..


there were a few others, but the first choices were always pro consumer, so I kind of got the impression that the ones polling are "good guys"..

I have been polled before, and usually the questions are worded so that either answer will actually say the same thing..

This was just a straight reading of the initiative and then questions about it and parts of it.. I think someone is trying to craft the language a bit..

I was called the other day, too, although it wasn't a political poll. It was just your garden-variety poll about consumer products. But what makes it stand out in my mind is that the person calling also had horrible problems articulating words, just as you have described above.


Cher

"pronounced bribery...breebree
initiative.........intive
political.........polticle
criminal..........crymal"

Sounds as if it might have been one of the bush brigade. Wonder if AWOL has a son he has been keeping under wraps ? Hell there is no end to his lies - possibly just one more ?

I hope not all pollsters, especially the more professional outfits, are like this. Though in any population, you'll find people on the high end and the low end, and I doubt it would be different with pollsters.

Btw, I like the graphic in your sig line, Julinda :)

Functionally illiterate. Or possibly dyslexic? Hard to tell.

Eloriel

In today's economy though, I wouldn't call to complain. For all we know, he could be trying real hard to make ends meet. The more he does this job, hopefully the better he'll get. Plus we're entering into Holiday season...such a heartbreaking time to lose a job.