Does This Poll Mean I Don't Have to Vote?

This week we covered political polling and answered the question - “does this poll mean I don’t have to vote?” (Spoiler alert: No. No it doesn’t.)

Looking for more info? We’ve got you covered!

https://people.howstuffworks.com/political-polling.htm

https://hbr.org/2016/08/how-todays-political-polling-works

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/numbers-lie-all-the-time-how-political-polls-work/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernard-starr/most-political-polls-repo_b_13606594.html

Here’s some more info about probability theory: https://towardsdatascience.com/basic-probability-theory-and-statistics-3105ab637213 (It’s… complicated. To say the least.)

While the Shy Trump Effect IS real, it actually has its roots in The Bradley (or Wilder) Effect. Here’s some more info on this concept: https://ballotpedia.org/Bradley_effect

Finally, we put a piece of a clip from a Pew Center video in our podcast:

The results of last Tuesday's presidential election came as a surprise to nearly everyone who had been following the national and state election polling. Our researchers discuss three possible reasons the polls missed their mark. Read the full blog post here: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/why-2016-election-polls-missed-their-mark Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.