Australians only....Election Surveys and Polls?

All the Election Polls and Surveys leading up to the election have Labor in front and apparently they appear to be the winners after the election based on the polls/surveys taken. What if people are saying they would prefer Labor but on election day vote Liberal just to make it appear that Labor is going to win? I know this sounds stupid but it is possible and then again that could go the other way too with people saying they would vote Liberal but vote Labor on the day. Opinions??

Public Comments

1. I can't vote because I am not yet a citizen, but my husband is an Aussie and for the first time he is voting green as he thinks both the labor and liberal parties are not doing enough to save Australia.
2. Both the leaders have said the only poll that counts is the one on Saturday, the newspolls are only meant to give a rough guide as to what the electorate is thinking.
3. By the time all the people who would vote labour find out they are no longer on the electoral roll it will be too late and everyone will think most of the people want the libs back in after all.
4. Well there's usually some sort of innacuracy in the polls, due to people saying they'll vote for a minor party rather than the government, since the government has done some unpopular stuff (like WorkChoices and Iraq). I don't know if people who plan on voting Labor would be equally coy about it. Dianne B, don't forget your hubby can't simply vote for the Greens - he has to number _every_ box on the ballot paper or his vote won't count. And since it's highly unlikely that the Greens will win a seat in the house of reps, and instead Labor or the Coalition will almost certainly win, no matter where you live, the order that he chooses to preference the major parties is very significant. Oh, and good luck with our stupid "citizenship test" :-)
5. Yes dazed... - there is no doubt that some surveyed might try this, but if you accept the possibiity, then it would also be possible that liberal voters are polling as labor voters. Polls have some margin of error, but they are consistently saying that labor will win on Saturday.
6. The question of whom to vote for at This election is not easy to answer, for me it is easy I know who gets my vote . Why? I have been voting since the 50th and the arguments pro and con are always the same,different words perhaps but each side is trying to convince us that their side is the right side. It is for us to work out and hopefully we are right who has the best credentials and whom do we trust,the old Boy with a prooven track record or the new golden Boy of whom we only seen the facade. What is behind that facade we don't know, perhaps an old Railway-Workshop we don't know. The best Spinndoctor not necessarily makes the best PM. Achange of government wont make your mortgage cheaper.
7. I'm not certain of voting for either party yet, on the day swinging voters may have the final say ! )
8. I would agree with CJ but add this... The polls are taken of lots of people (over a thousand), chosen at random, from all over the country. For people to deliberately fool the polls would require co-ordination between the people being surveyed, which can't really happen given the way the polls are conducted. There might be some isolated people doing this but the amount would be statistically insignificant. What could create a different result on election day are the voters that haven't really made up their mind yet, or people changing their mind over the next few days... take it easy
9. Polls rely on having an even playing field of respondents. This on ordinary subjects can prove difficult to achieve. With an election, impossible! The average "Aussie" will either vehemently express their political view, be it left or right persuasion. [fixed voters] or not reveal/or disguise their actual leanings [swinging voters]. It is the swinging voter that decides the real outcome of elections, if they are not willing to reveal their intent and wrongly answer questions, deliberately, then the Poll result becomes biased. The question, itself, can be couched in terms that sway and bias the response and Pollsters (those that formulate the questions) are well versed in their art. To conclude I can only add what I learned through 4yrs. of Politics at University: Any survey or Poll can produce the desired result of the Enquirer through either question manipulation or manipulation of the Target Group e.g. Asking a question on the effects of unemployment would gain totally different results if asked in an area of high wealth as opposed to being asked in a welfare dominated low socio-economic area.
10. It may happen! The opinion polls show Rudd is only on a small lead right now, so the election is too close to say who is going to win.
11. These polls and surveys are not accurate because of the low number that are asked, a geniune survey or poll would be about 50,000 to give a better indication . All over the country the poll have been saying that Labor is in front all the way up to election day. And for a sudden change to Liberal Party, they were the ones that stated that they would keep interest rates at record low, since the 2004 election , they have risen, but have risen sharply under work choices. And because of the secret further installments of those IR laws, that Howard will not release should concern to every worker and their family. Go Labor