Political polls

are analysed and scruitinised and given earnest media attention... especially around election time.
Yesterday there was an article in our state newspaper about those polls. It was written by one of the local journalists and it probably answered a few questions for anyone who bothered to read it.
I read it because I was curious about what said journalist would cover and how she would cover it.
The article covered things like the number of people who are asked, how they are chosen and the "margin for error" (how accurate these processes are) and so on.
It failed to mention two things of importance. The first is this. Some people refuse to answer. These people are not necessarily "undecided" voters. Some of them simply don't want to answer. They can't be bothered or they object to the nature of the questions.
I am one who won't answer questions about how I vote. It is no business of a complete stranger how I intend to vote or who I will be "preferencing". My answers are not "anonymous". If it is a person at the other end they know the number they have called. It is a simple process from there to find out who I am if they are so minded. 
And if it is one of those increasingly prevalent and even more irritating "robocalls"? Why should I answer to a machine? Indeed why should I answer at all?
And there is the other thing that nobody ever seems to mention in talking about the results of these calls. It is the number of people who don't answer accurately, who simply lie when they answer.
I know people who do that. Like me they see it as no business of the caller. Unlike me they decide they will have a little fun. They pretend to be far right or far left or, if of either persuasion, they pretend to be centrist. 
Perhaps if enough people do that then the results end up being reasonably accurate. The pollsters seem to be happy enough.
I once had a long discussion with a man who runs a big polling company. 
    "Cat, if you want to make my life difficult but interesting then think about those things" he told me of the issues I have just mentioned, "Our results influence results."
Perhaps they do.
It still doesn't mean I am going to tell a machine how I will vote or have voted.