WND’s new polling partner

WorldNetDaily and Rasmussen Research’s

Portrait of America have teamed up to produce new monthly national public opinion surveys and expand coverage of other surveys by the company determined to be the most accurate and prolific polling firm in America.

“At Rasmussen Research, we are committed to unleashing the incredible power and truth of public opinion and consumer information in a pure, unfiltered form,” said Scott Rasmussen, director of the award-winning polling agency. With the advent of the Internet and the need for original content, “we plan to publicly release more polling data every year than the rest of the industry combined.” “Within a decade,” he said, “Rasmussen Research will have generated more than half of all polling data ever publicly released in U.S. history.”

An independent assessment recently found that Rasmussen was the most accurate polling firm in the nation; Gallup finished second, with Zogby close behind.

“We’re very proud that WorldNetDaily is teaming up with such an impressive polling organization,” said Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of the newssite. “We believe we are the first independent Internet news organization to form such an alliance to conduct independent, enterprising public opinion surveys.”

The first monthly WorldNetDaily-Portrait of America Poll will focus on the public’s view of the proper role of the press in a free society.

Rasmussen said his firm has developed a better way to take and measure telephone surveys at a cost far below that which other firms incur. That, he said, is one reason why his company has the ability to churn out much more data, more accurately.

Rasmussen Research conducts public opinion surveys using a proprietary automated polling system. Participants in surveys hear a recorded voice ask a question and provide instructions on how to answer. Typically, the response instructions would be something like, “If yes, press 1; if no, press 2; if you are not sure, press 3.” Other times, the survey respondents are asked to respond in their own words.

And though the firm posts results of its surveys and polls online, Rasmussen said it does not gather polling data online.

One of the most frequent complaints about polling firms is that they intentionally pick “partisan” or specific target audiences that are likely to provide answers sought by pollsters. While that may be true in some cases and with some non-professional survey personnel who work for a particular group, Rasmussen Research is non-partisan and interested first and foremost in accuracy.

The Washington-based

Progressive Review, which conducted the “Primary Pollster Run-Off” independent review of polling firms, ranked Rasmussen No. 1 in accuracy.

“The results suggest that, contrary to popular myth, polls do work, but that some work considerably better than others,” said Sam Smith, publisher of the magazine.

See earlier story:

The new pollster in town