USA TODAY/GALLUP POLL AT ODDS WITH QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY POLL

During any election cycle, there always becomes a battle of the polls.

Two polls released this week regard the Republican Primary Presidential Candidates could leave readers wondering which one is right on the money?

The USA Today/Gallup poll conducted September 15-18, 2011 derived the following results +/- 4%:

Perry:              31%
Romney:          24%
Paul:                13%
Bachmann:         5%
Gingrich:            5%
Cain:                  5%
Santorum:           2%
Huntsman:          1%

The Qunnipiac University poll was conducted during nearly the same time period (September 14-19, 2011) came up with the following results +/- 5.1%:


Perry:              28%
Romney:          22%
Palin:                 8%

Cain:                  7%
Gingrich:             7%
Paul:                   6%

Bachmann:          5%

Santorum:           2%

Huntsman:          2%

After the release of the Quinnipiac poll, many media reports ran today with a quote similar to "Romney and Perry only two candidates in double digits."  This is untrue, because the poll included non-candidates.

The problem with the Quinnipiac poll (besides its wide margin of error) is that it threw in Palin who is not running yet and not participating the Orlando GOP debate tonight.

By adding Palin, the poll effectively split the Tea Party vote between Paul and Palin, thereby reducing Paul to single digits.

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