Mobile phone use may have excluded voice of young voters

THE growth in mobile phone use could have excluded large numbers of young, newly-registered voters from the opinion polls in the run-up to the presidential elections.

With the polls continuing to run extremely close, some commentators have suggested the slight lead enjoyed by George Bush nationally may not be an accurate reflection of voter intentions.

A growing number of people rely solely on mobile phones to make and take calls, putting them out of reach of polling organisations trying to get a fix on the United States electorate who can contact voters only by landlines.