It's really easy to get the results you want from a poll. Some polls out of Iowa this week show this perfectly - in one, Bernie is over Biden and in the other it is the opposite. The difference comes in follow up questions regarding voting habits. In the poll Biden was leading, they asked if the person voted in 2018, 2016 and 2014 to determine if they were/are a likely voter. In the poll Bernie was leading, they didn't ask those questions. That poll could have spoken to a 7 year old that would vote for Bernie but can't, legally, do so and they counted them as a vote for Bernie.
The most important things about polls is the questions.
It's really easy to get the results you want from a poll. Some polls out of Iowa this week show this perfectly - in one, Bernie is over Biden and in the other it is the opposite. The difference comes in follow up questions regarding voting habits. In the poll Biden was leading, they asked if the person voted in 2018, 2016 and 2014 to determine if they were/are a likely voter. In the poll Bernie was leading, they didn't ask those questions. That poll could have spoken to a 7 year old that would vote for Bernie but can't, legally, do so and they counted them as a vote for Bernie.
The most important things about polls is the questions.
100% correct. The methodology on how the poll it conducted makes a huge difference.
100% correct. The methodology on how the poll it conducted makes a huge difference.
(post is archived)