Did YouGov’s polls close just after Clegg’s speech?

by Sunny Hundal
7:21 pm - April 24th 2010

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Not long after the second Leaders Debate finished, a poll by Sky News showed Cameron had narrowly won the debate.

Many twitter users cried foul and conspiracy. I think that’s slightly unfair (there’s more problems with how newspaper report polls than the actual polls themselves). But there’s now a new twist to the tail.

Michael Crick of the BBC writes on his blog:

Yougov say their internet poll on the debate last night was conducted between 9.27pm and 9.31pm.

This may explain why Yougov gave David Cameron a better rating than the other post-debate polls did last night. For Nick Clegg ended the debate with a very powerful closing speech, probably the best of the evening. According to the BBC video system Clegg didn’t start speaking until 9:29:18 and finished at 9:30:47? .

So many of those polled by Yougov last night must have voted without seeing his final speech.

How many did vote before seeing that final speech? (via Craig Murray)

This point was put to Peter Kellner of YouGov by research mag:

We put this to YouGov’s Peter Kellner, who admitted that yes, the poll did open up while the party leaders were delivering their closing remarks. This, he said, was to ensure that the weblink would be working correctly as soon as the debate ended.

Kellner said a “handful” of people completed the survey before the debate went off air – though he wouldn’t say exactly how many. “There will be some people who had nothing better to do than click the link until the survey opened up,” he said.

The question is, what effect did these people have on the overall result of YouGov’s poll? Kellner is adamant they didn’t have any effect. He said the agency compared results from the first 1,000 people who took part in the poll within the first few minutes of it going live with results from a second batch of 1,000 people who took part in the minutes that followed (but weren’t part of the published poll) and that no discrepancies were found.

(via LibdemVoice).

But if Michael Crick is right, the poll was open a majority of the time before Clegg even started his speech (which was thought to be quite good).

Are YouGov saying the majority of the people who finished their poll between 9:30:47? and, er, 9:31pm? I can’t see how most people will have finished the poll after watching Clegg’s speech.

Am going to email Peter Kellner of YouGov to ask.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
· Other posts by Sunny Hundal

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House Of Twits
RT @libcon Did YouGov finish polling before Clegg's final speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
Liberal Conspiracy
Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
David Smyth
RT @libcon: Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP #ge2010
Leon Green
RT @libcon Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
Jane Bradley
RT @pickledpolitics: Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP – their behaviour is really odd.
Naadir Jeewa
Reading: Did YouGov’s polls close just after Clegg’s speech?: Not long after the second Leaders Debate finished, a… http://bit.ly/bFiEuy
Louisa Loveluck
RT @libcon Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
Daniel de Bruin
RT @pickledpolitics: Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP – their behaviour is really odd.
Peter Welch
RT @HouseofTwits: RT @libcon Did YouGov finish polling before Clegg's final speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
Tony Williams
Liberal Conspiracy » Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's …: The question is, what effect did these peopl… http://bit.ly/cdRdK7
Otis Holtsclaw
Liberal Conspiracy » Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's …: Many twitter users cried foul and conspiracy… http://bit.ly/9jc1Tp
Liberal Conspiracy
Did YouGov finish polling before Clegg's final speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
Max Atkinson
RT @libcon: Did YouGov finish polling before Clegg's final speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
Peter Welch
RT @houseoftwits: RT @libcon Did YouGov finish polling before Clegg's final speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by libcon: Did YouGov finish polling before Clegg’s final speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP…
sunny hundal
Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/c2hQxP – their behaviour is really odd.
David Briggs
RT @libcon: Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/9DwJoM
Paul Jakma
@thomasbridge Well YouGov are doing stuff like conducting polls on debate before Clegg even can give final stat.: http://bit.ly/drmo1F
Garry
RT @libcon: Did YouGov's polls close just after Clegg's speech? http://bit.ly/9DwJoM