“The hidden vote is only a campaign argument for candidates in difficulty”

VS’is the essential chestnut tree of presidential campaigns. From Jean-Marie Le Pen to Éric Zemmour via Lionel Jospin, the staffs of the candidates work at each election to ensure that there would be a “hidden vote” that the pollsters would not be able to detect. If the argument was admissible thirty years ago, when the pollsters met the respondents directly, it is much less so today.

Surveys are conducted online and respondents have no interest in giving false information to a computer, explains the Point Mathieu Gallard, research director at Ipsos. Therefore, the brandished argument appears more like an ultimate lifeline for candidates in difficulty than as an objective reality.