Publicly reported polls are an absolutely ridiculous idea, and should not be aired at all on the media. They are an interference in the electoral process, because they manipulate people.

Not that it matters. Like Bobert said, Jefferson's experiment with actual democracy ended some time ago.

Your elections are about as legitimate and meaningful as the next episode of "Survivor", and are conducted at about the same level of stunned and negative consciousness. You are participating in an exercise as empty and phony as the old Communist elections were in the Soviet Union...because the Party, meaning the Redemocrapublicants, wins...and the people lose...every time.

No other result can occur, given how corporate money controls the process. That was not yet the case in Jefferson's time, so the system fairly much worked back then. It's archaic now, and it no longer can work to represent ordinary citizens. Jefferson foresaw the takeover of democracy by large financial/commercial interests. So did Lincoln. They foresaw it and warned against it, but they could not prevent it in a society where Money is King.