Survey polls can and do manipulate people. True, unlikely in a referendum, but not impossible. Say the polls say its 55/45 for your team, and its raining heavil

Survey polls can and do manipulate people. True, unlikely in a referendum, but not impossible. Say the polls say its 55/45 for your team, and its raining heavily (weather is known to influences outcome). Would you be motivated to go? Maybe you would, but some would not. Another one (not referendum specific; my comment regarding strategic voting wasn't specific to referendum either). Say your preferential candidate is Charlie. You have no idea what other people vote. You'd vote for Charlie. However, say you know its going to be between Alice and Bob. You really don't want Bob to win. So you vote for Alice. If you consider mass media and hype surrounding survey polls, these cause strategic voting between whoever ends up popular. Consider, for example, the way a candidate gets chosen for Republican or Democratic party. Prime example of strategic voting. Some see these examples as opportunities to get their preference [for a candidate or political goal] in higher regard. I don't; I see these factors as factors which potentially harm the democratic outcome on the long term. Now, like Earth, democracy is strong and adaptive. It can take a bump. But it isn't endlessly going to accept stomps and beatings. Hence, I believe we need to try to maintain the integrity and authenticity.