Foil The Polsters

Those telephone polls that are cited almost nightly on the evening news are becoming less and less reliable for a number of reasons - mostly related to the fact that they are telehone polls - and the number of people who are willing to participate is falling.

WASHINGTON - More Americans are refusing to participate in telephone polls these days, but carefully conducted surveys still can get accurate samples of public opinion — according to a new poll.

The study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found the percentage of people reached for interviews in a typical five-day Pew survey dropped from 36 percent in 1997 to 27 percent in 2003.

Another problem is that more and more people are using cell phones as their sole telephone number and polsters are not allowed to call those numbers.