What does “Polls Say” in an Election even mean? How are they updated? No one has ever asked me my thoughts. Who are they asking and who is actually answering?

Question

What does “Polls Say” in an Election even mean? How are they updated? No one has ever asked me my thoughts. Who are they asking and who is actually answering?

In: Other

Answer 1

This is actually a big problem in modern polling. It used to be regular people would answer their phone, answer the door, and answer questions from pollsters on the street.

Now, the only people who answer unknown numbers are old people and idiots. The same goes for people who answer the door.

Here is an example of phone survey responders breakdown: 85% +65yo, 7% 55-64yo, 4% 45-54yo, etc. There are ways to extrapolate poll results from underrepresented demographics, but these numbers have a high error rate.

Social media surveys try to account for these underrepresented demos, but the people who answer social media surveys are usually lower educated with extreme views. Their responses only skew the results, adding to the error.

So yeah, this is a huge issue and it hasn’t been solved yet. It won’t be solved before this election. Consider all polling results with a grain of salt.