The Civitas Institute is defending its polling.
After reading critiques of the conservative think tank's question wording on Dome, pollster Chris Hayes wrote to say that its mission is being misunderstood.
Hayes said that the think tank is trying to determine the political science on a particular issue, not the social science. While the Elon University Poll aims to find out the complex thoughts people have on the death penalty, Civitas wants to know how they'll vote.
"You could ask people a lengthy survey on their feelings about the death penalty and under which conditions they favor what punishment and get a whole series of what-ifs and partial realities," he said. "But then ask the students of UNC-Chapel Hill if they want to see the two guys who murdered Eve Carson to be executed and you probably get a different answer."
He said Civitas is looking for the "gut reaction" that causes voters to favor one candidate or issue — one reason it polls likely voters and not all residents, as Elon does.
"The Elon poll is more after the answer to the why question," he said. "We're not. Politics is not played on ambivalence. Elections are decided by finding out the issues that move people."
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Re: Civitas defends its polling
I call bull. Yes, Civitas' questions provoke a gut reaction, but it's clearly meant to be slanted one way, so what they're trying to find out is: do Republicans' arguments sway voters one way, and then they pass the results off as what the people really think. Their polls don't present a replication of the political environment of an election, where you get visceral arguments from both sides on various issues and voters get to decide which extremity tugs their heartstrings more. Real pollsters who are earnestly trying to find out which issues and arguments move voters use split samples with arguments from both sides.