In the 1400s, it was possible to poll people and find out that a plurality believed the world was flat.

Don't forget that the full name of polls is ususally "Opinion Polls". Polls have no meaning when issues of fact are at hand.

Or shall we take a poll as to whether penicillin cures bacterial disease?

Maybe we should take a poll about whether my spork will fall if I let it go right now.

So what is the "fact' we are discussing? *"WIN"* What does it mean, and what did it mean to those answering the poll? Without a firm handle on these, the polls are farts in a windstorm.