It appears the the OC Register cheats on its online poll. In a poll on March 17 asking "Should the 12 million illegal immigrants now in America be allowed to become legal permanent residents?" the Register reported that out of 2018 online and telephoned votes, 9% were "yes" and 81% were "no." However, at 11:30 p.m. last night the poll indicated that there were 204 votes for "yes," more than ten percent of the total. It showed 187 votes for "no."

Also dubious are the number of telephoned votes the Register reports. Although the cut off time for the poll is not known, from the online figures it would seem that over 1500 calls, or roughly one each minute for 24 hours, were made to the Register's switchboard.

Online and call-in polls are notoriously unscientific, relying on highly motivated respondents rather than a random sample, and carelessly worded questions. Nevertheless, they do influence broader public perception of the population group, in this case readers of the Register. They may also influence editorial policy.

In this case, however, the numbers appear to be deliberately skewed to reflect editorial policy. The inability of the newspaper of record for Orange County to accurately report its own survey raises concerns about the paper's commitment to reporting basic facts in all of its reporting. And it raises more doubts on the reliability of media reporting in general, already plummeting in public confidence.

All polls are skewed one way or another that dosen't mean they lied about the results. There was a poll of non-registered voters that basically supports illegal immigration (whats the point of that) yet all the polls from registered voter show that the majority do not support a guest worker program or illegal immigration. Believe what you want. The only polls that matter are in November when the politicians keep there jobs or lose them. Thats the only polls that the legislature is interested in.

OC Register polls are easy to fix. You don't even need the OC Register staff to do it. When only like 30 people even vote in it, some group like the Minutemen or whatever can get on their email lists and tell like 40 people to vote a certain way. If you get a significant portion of the Orange County population to care enough about the polls the vote in them, then it would be interesting to see if they're fixed.

Me. an eyewitness.