Do Voter Surveys Underestimate The Impact of Racial Bias?

摘要

As a grueling, multiyear presidential campaign comes to an end, a touchy question hangs in the air: Have voter polls been skewed by an inability to detect racial bias? Some social scientists think that many voters who say they support Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama in fact may be uncomfortable with the prospect of an African-American president-or that polls have failed to reach Democratic voters most likely to harbor such prejudice. On election day, the theory goes, some fraction of those people may vote for Republican Senator John McCain-or not vote at all.