Straw Polls

I imagine we all know that internet straw polls are not exactly the most accurate tools in the world. However, I suspect that they have some influence in the minds of people that take them and those who review the results. With that in mind, I find it curious that many polls don't seem to list Ron Paul as a voting option even though he has an exploratory committee whereas, people like Newt Gingrich will be listed and Mr. Gingrich hasn't even taken this step. It is further curious considering the polls where Ron Paul is listed he seems to do quite well. For example, out of a small sample (31 votes) on the Baptistboard poll he has received 45% of the total votes cast and the next closest had 16%.

A case in point is pajamasmedia.com, a "conservative" web site which has a relatively popular poll with over 60,000 total votes cast. When they started this poll in January Ron Paul wasn't listed, which makes sense as no announcement had been made yet of him running. In week 2 they added his name and he got a blip at 3.8% and a 7th place finish. In week 3, Paul had a third place finish with 15.6% of the vote and by week 4 he finished in 1st place with 32.4% of the vote! Further, there was an 8% difference between he and the 2nd place finisher, Rudy Giuliani. How do you suppose he finished in week 5? He didn't, as Pajamasmedia changed the rules to disallow Ron Paul from being on the poll and their stated reason was because Gallup doesn't include Paul on the Gallup poll. It appears to me that they didn't like the result of a Ron Paul 1st place finish so they changed the rules of the game.

What are your thoughts on this kind of behavior, is it acceptable or a bit on the disengeniuous side? Have you seen this at other sites or similar bias towards other candidates?