A polling company insists it did not call people on their cellphones, although more than 100 people responding to the poll said they use no other type of telephone other than their cellphones.
Calling people on their cellphones using "autodialers" or "robocalls," as used in the poll, would violate Federal Communications Commission rules and be subject to fines, the company acknowledged.
"We go to great measures to comply with all rules and regulations in regard to researching voter attitudes," said Clint Reed, a partner at Impact Management Group who manages the daily operation of the company's public opinion and political consulting services. His company conducted the Feb. 12 poll.
The results include an 8 percentage point preference for a generic Republican candidate in congressional races, a 63 percent unfavorable rating for Obamacare, divided opinions about Arkansas' "private option" health plan and the Tea Party, and a 4 percentage-point lead for U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, a Republican, over incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat.
"We flag every phone number in our database using the telephone exchange to help identify cellphones," Reed said. "We exclude every telephone exchange that is identified as a cellphone in every sample we pull. Once our database is loaded into our system, the polling platform actually 'scrubs' the list a second time to double confirm that there are no cellphones in the sample. In fact, our system includes a fail-safe mechanism that alerts us to remove any remaining identified cellphones before the calls will launch. Again, we go to great lengths to ensure that we are FCC compliant.
"The survey in question simply tested what is described as 'household phone usage.' We have gone back to the results and double confirmed that those who answered 'cellphone only' were in fact called on a landline phone. It's highly likely, based on my survey research experience, that respondents were answering this question based on their primary method of phone usage -- not phone ownership."
The Feb. 12 poll asks in Question 14: "In terms of your household's phone usage, do you have a landline only, a cellphone only, or a landline and a cellphone?" Of those responding, 10 percent had a landline only, 11 percent a cellphone only and 77 percent had both. With a sample size of 1,202 in the Impact Management poll, the 11 percent responding to the question of phone ownership amounts to 132 people.
Verizon and AT&T, the two largest cellphone providers in the state, confirmed through spokesmen that they have received no complaints of customers being called on their cellphones by an automated poll. However, such complaints would go to the FCC, a spokesman for AT&T said. The FCC does not comment on whether it is investigating a specific complaint, a spokesman for the commission's Washington, D.C., headquarters said.
Ernest J. Oakleaf is a founder and partner in Opinion Research Associates. The Little Rock-based firm is one of the longest-established polling firms in the state.
Oakleaf said he reviewed the Impact Management poll and he was unsure how so many respondents, called on landlines, could be so confused that they would answer that they did not own a landline. "They're holding it in their hand," he said. "It's a simple question."
"I'm flummoxed," Oakleaf said.
"If that many people didn't respond accurately in a question that simple, it's not a good sign for the results of the rest of your poll," Oakleaf said.
NW News on 03/10/2014