Be wary of making voting decisions based on political polls

I am not sure where you stand on polls, but I believe there are four basic categories that polls fall into: love, hate, take with a grain of salt or believe as gospel.

Wherever you stand, the news media seems to live on the polls without passing on critical information such as who took the poll, how many samples were taken, where they were taken, and, most importantly, was there any apparent bias on the part of the poll taker?

Everyone should understand that a poll is nothing but a snapshot in time about the given subject.

I believe that most voters have already formed an opinion on the major candidates. My concern is how polls, applied to down-ballot voter choices, will affect their votes. When you consider the many yet-to-be-revealed propositions and the many other complex items on our ballots, could voters be swayed to vote based on the latest poll results?

We as voters should be very careful when/if using polls as a guide to voting. Our vote is a precious thing that we should carefully use to support our best interests, and not be swayed by outside interests who may be using polls to advance their own agendas and influence our votes.

This story was originally published September 20, 2016 at 5:55 AM with the headline "Be wary of making voting decisions based on political polls."