<![CDATA[Ron Paul, Liberaltarians, and Cell Phones]]>Josh Claybourn returns to the question of cell-phones, polls and Ron Paul’s campaign. They do affect pollling data, as Pew has demonstrated here, and certainly by enough to affect a primary election. Cell-phone-only voters are also markedly different than landline voters:

The National Health Interview Survey found them to be much younger, more likely to be African American or Hispanic, less likely to be married, and less likely to be a homeowner than adults with landline telephones…

According to the most recent government estimate, more than 25% of those under age 30 use only a cell phone. An analysis of young people ages 18-25 in one of the Pew polls found that the exclusion of the cell-only respondents resulted in significantly lower estimates of this age group’s approval of alcohol consumption and marijuana use.

That makes intuitive sense to me. And it would mean a slight under-estimation of someone like Ron Paul’s support.

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