With less than one week before Election Day, a number of public opinion polls are underway. Some of them, though, are not asking voters about all of the candidates on the ballot, which political scientists say could skew the results in certain races.
In the two close races for Governor and for the Second Congressional District seat, some polls have asked about the party nominees by name and have lumped the independent candidates together as a nameless “other.” Political scientists in Maine say that is not a good polling practice, particularly in the congressional and senate races, in which ranked-choice voting is in place.
“To be perfectly blunt, I don’t know why a pollster would do that, particularly when you are dealing with an election now conducted under ranked-choice,” says UM political science professor Mark Brewer. “I can’t for the life of me think of any reason you would do that as a pollster, other than to make your own life easier.”
Political scientists say the independent candidates could play a role in determining the final winner, and that they should be accounted for in poll results.
