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Political donation e-mails give me the warm and fuzzies...

Alright, so that's not true. I receive at least one e-mail per day suggesting I donate money to a Democratic candidate. I'm then told of a single poll which showcases the Republican opponent as being tied with or ahead of the Democrat and that he/she needs my donation asap! Of course, I've often found that these very panic polls are outliers or they were released a couple months prior.

I'm certain that both parties are guilty of this, as they want to raise as much money as is possible to run ads and defeat their opponent. However, as understanding as I am about that, it's also dishonest.

I received an e-mail just today about a Pew Research poll which showed that Mitt Romney is ahead of Barack Obama by 4 points among likely voters nationwide. Of course, every other poll has the two candidates tied or at worst, Romney ahead by 1 among likely voters and Obama up by between 3 and 5 points among registered ones. This isn't even mentioning Obama's advantage when it comes to the electoral college, as most every political analyst still believes that if the election were held tomorrow, the president would wind up winning and staying in office another four years.

While I can certainly understand the campaign and volunteers looking to the poll with the worst possible result and use that as fuel to motivate themselves and others further, I can't understand it being used dishonestly to garner more donations. People, regardless of who they're voting for, should feel free to donate to a candidate on his/her own accord without feeling pressured and manipulated by misleading numbers in order to prompt their donation(s).

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