Missouri Bill Threatens Pollsters

Legislation proposed by the state of Missouri poses a threat to opinion polling, according to US industry body CMOR. The state wishes to modify its telemarketing Do Not Call list to allow consumers to opt out of phone calls not just from marketers - but also from companies conducting political polls.

The bill seeks to modify the definition of 'telephone solicitation' to include calls made 'for the purpose of endorsing a political candidate, requesting financial support or a vote for a political candidate, or conducting polling regarding a political candidate whether the data obtained from the polling is to be analyzed or discarded.'

CMOR states that, as the legislation does not provide a definition of 'polling', all survey research relating to a political candidate could be classed as telephone solicitation.

The organisation says it is working to protect the profession, 'gathering intelligence on the scope, impact and sponsors of the bill, as well as what support the bill may have in Missouri'.

The news comes as a new poll from Harris Interactive reveals that 76% of US adults have signed up to the national Do Not Call registry - compared with 57% two years ago. Of these, 13% mistakenly believe that survey research firms and pollsters are not allowed to call those numbers on the list. 24% know that they are allowed to do so, while 63% do not know.

The Harris Poll of 1,961 US adults was conducted online between December 8 and 14, 2005.

Harris Interactive is online at www.harrisinteractive.com

CMOR, a non-profit organisation that works on behalf of the survey research industry is online at www.cmor.org.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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