Question

How is polling done during an election

Answer 1

Explanation:

A robust public polling industry is a marker of a free society. It’s a testament to the ability of organizations outside the government to gather and publish information about the well-being of the public and citizens’ views on major issues. In nations without robust polling, the head of government can simply decree citizens’ wants and needs instead.

After the 2016 presidential election, some observers understandably questioned whether polling in the United States is still up to the task of producing accurate information. Errors in 2016 laid bare some real limitations of polling, even as clear-eyed reviews of national polls in both 2016 and 2018 found that polls still perform well when done carefully.

One way to help avoid a repeat of the skepticism about surveys that followed the last presidential election is to narrow the gap between perception and reality when it comes to how polling works. People have many notions about polling – often based on an introductory statistics class, but sometimes even less – that are frequently false. The real environment in which polls are conducted bears little resemblance to the idealized settings presented in textbooks.

With that in mind, here are some key points the public should know about polling heading into this year’s presidential election.

Answer 2

So far this year, pollsters have put out more than 400 national Presidential general election polls, an average of about two per day; if the 2012 election is any guide, pollsters will be releasing as many as four per day as Election Day nears. While these poll releases are the subject of intense media interest, that interest is focused on the results of the polls, with much less attention given to how the polls are actually carried out. Political polling is one of the few areas in American life which has survived basically unchanged since the advent of the Internet, and while that may be about to change, it’s not at all clear that it would be a good thing.