Half of Gen Z voters — and 1 in 4 U.S. voters overall — have lied to people close to them about who they're voting for, according to the latest Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.
The findings raise big questions about the limits and future of polling, which relies on voters giving responses reflecting their real-life political behavior.
Some likely don't want retribution from their far right family members, others didn't want to talk politics with Uncle Bob, who will talk and talk forever if you don't agree with him, others want to mess with the polls.
Dont be too confident in the secretly voting Dem demographic. Unfortunately, that pendulum swings both ways. It can just as easily be Trump supporters who don't want to face social consequences for that choice as well.
There are a lot of ignorant gen-z men with a victim complex and a TikTok account that are closet fascists and follow right wing propaganda targeted towards a younger audience. They might not want to admit that they are pathetic losers to their friends and family.
Exactly, that's how 2016 was. I suspect it's the same this year, although given how dependent Gen Z is on parents financially, I'd still get the secret Harris supporters have better reason to withhold the truth this year. I can't imagine a Harris supporter kicking out their Trump son (even if they're definitely disappointed).
I sure as hell wouldn't wanna get kicked out over my vote. And really, that isn't even a Gen Z thing honestly, my dad got kicked out at 15 for leftist views and that was the 70s.
I can see that. If you're a hateful or bigoted person and you tell people about that then they like you less usually, so by not telling people about your trump support you would lose less friends
This is easily the case since they have been taught they are persecuted. Only once they win can they rise up stand proud.
I remember coworkers coming out after the last election.
Or maybe just people unwilling to support Harris because of her refusal to commit to stopping Palestinian genocide who are sick of hearing they're Trump supporters
"Voters across the political spectrum said they've lied about their voting: 27% of Democrats acknowledged it, while 24% of Republicans and 20% of independents did so. The survey didn't ask exactly how, why or to whom they'd lied."
Also....
"40% of voters said they planned to wait until Election Day to vote, just in case something changes — with another 8% saying it will probably be a "gut decision" in the voting booth."
Are you sure that they are in denial? I do not believe in the ignorant bigot anymore. They are just trying to balance punishment of those they don't like vs personal gain.
I take it as a major moral obligation to lie to pollsters. For similar reasons, when using a proprietary LLM, I make sure to inject completely random profanity in all my responses to poison their training data.
I remember when I was in 7th or 8th grade, everyone had to take an anonymous mandatory survey. That day I was a chronic hard drug user. The amount of drugs I was allegedly taking would have bankrupt a millionaire. Absolutely a waste of everyone's time and money.
It was a joke, but the article itself does explicitly conclude this as one of its observations:
The findings raise big questions about the limits and future of polling, which relies on voters giving responses reflecting their real-life political behavior.
Millennial here: If telling some MAGAt or annoying survey taker that I'm voting for Trump shuts them up and makes them leave me alone, I'mma lie my fucking ass off.
If a pollster somehow gets through to me, they are not get a reasonable or PC answer. I'm telling them all sorts of terrible things I think about their uninvited solicitation of me, and where they can shove. If I wasn't a petulant child that responds to cunts that way, I still wouldn't give them anything. I won't put a sign outside my house, because Republicans are fucking crazy and self proclaimed "domestic terrorists", and staying off any of their lists is certainly a forethought.
I’ve also gotten SMS spam that looks like potential legitimate pollsters, but hell if I’ll click on them. Between all the obvious spam texts I’ve gotten over the years and the flood of political spam the past few months, I simply ignore and delete them all…
is my current spam inbox on my texts messages. I engage sometimes a la the top text, but also my name isn't Renay and I've had this phone number for many many years
I'm pretty sure the most accurate poll so far has been the nickelodeon kids poll because it's technically a side channel info dump since kids would actually want to participate and they typically represent their parents' views.
It was 52-48 in Harris's favor.
The Kids Pick the President “Kids’ Vote” is an informal non-scientific poll, meant for entertainment purposes only.
Either that or they fudged the results to keep parents happy lmao
Even that might be wrong because at least some of those mothers are afraid to voice their real views. So I agree with you but I still think it might be skewed too heavily in Trump's favor.
Disclosure is not owed to anyone on this issue. I think if you are asking the question, you should expect evasiveness up to the point of lying. Its a reflection of how bad things are in our government.
It can be physically and emotionally unsafe to disclose how you voted. Its gross for media to try to blame people for doing their part but doing it safely instead of blaming the terrorists who makes people afraid to tell the truth.
Yup, if Trump wins and starts enacting fascist policies, I’ll 100% be defaulting to “oh who has time for politics” when anyone asks what my views are. Because I’ll have to assume that if someone is asking, it’s to report me if I’m too liberal. It’s always important to remember that the nazi camps didn’t start with Jews; It started with political prisoners and dissenters who spoke out against the government. Because when a fascist government is seizing control, the first thing they’ll do is try to silence the opposition.
I agree. The real story here is half of Gen Z felt like they had to lie. When I was growing up it was perfectly acceptable, even to my parents, to say I don't want to talk about it. It's a secret ballot for a reason.
Welcome to ... well, all of history? This isn't news. There have been plenty of times and plenty of reasons throughout history where people have needed/wanted to lie about who they were voting for.
Compared to the enlightened discussions we have as things are? Social media made talking about politics more ubiquitous than ever and it only made things worse. Also this may surprise you but you can talk politics without disclosing who you vote for.
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