Polling

Polling is a sampling or collection of opinions on a person or subject, conducted from either a random or selected group of persons, usually for the purpose of analysis or prediction. Politics remains one of the more common contributors to polling, whether in terms of a referendum on an important political consideration of the day (e.g., the decriminalization of marijuana) or of a field of candidates for political office (e.g., the U.S. presidency in 2016). The political polling referred to above, which, as Sunshine Hillygus reports, began in scientific form with the 1936 election, is not only usually conducted throughout the weeks and months preceding a major national election, it also occurs on the day of the election. As Stephen Fisher, Jouni Kuha, and Clive ...