Push poll is an opinion poll whose real purpose is to influence people's opinions rather than to collect information about them.
Push poll指以民调之名行影响民意之实的民意调查，这种调查的真的目的不是采集大家的建议，而是影响大家的怎么看，即推手民调。
In essence, a push poll is something approaching a smear1 campaign masquerading as an opinion poll. A push poll typically involves phoning very large numbers of voters and, in the guise2 of doing a survey to find out how certain pieces of 'information' may affect their voting preferences, feeding them false or damaging information about a particular candidate. The idea then is to 'push' them away from any rival candidate and steer3 them towards the candidate that the caller supports.
从本质上来看，推手民调更像是伪装成民意调查的抹黑大战（smear campaign）。这种调查一般会电话联络很多的选民，假装调查什么信息会干扰选民的投票决定，而在此过程中向选民灌输有关某个候选人的不真实或破坏性信息。如此做的目的是将选民从角逐对手那里推开，转而支持调查方这边的候选人。
The essential difference between a push poll and a valid4 opinion poll, is that the latter merely attempts to elicit5 opinions, whilst the former aims to change and influence them. In a push poll, large numbers of respondents are contacted, but little or no effort is made to collect and analyze6 response data because no-one is really interested in this information once the phone call is over, the main aim having been to negatively influence the targeted candidate.
推手民调和真的的民调之间的本质不同是，民意调查只不过为了采集民意，而推手调查是为了改变和影响民意。在推手调查中，很多受访者会接到调查信息，但并无人做后续的信息采集和剖析工作，由于在调查电话挂断将来，就无人再对那些信息有兴趣了。推手调查的主要为了对某个特定候选人产生负面影响。