When veteran pollster Scott Keeter appeared at a recent gathering of industry professionals, he began his presentation with a somber caveat about the methods at the center of his life’s work.
Telephone polling — for decades the backbone of efforts to measure public opinion and the subject of his new study — are in “wheezing condition,” Keeter told a roomful of colleagues. And experiments to prolong their use are akin to putting on “a great party for the deck of the Titanic.”
The impending death of the telephone poll comes just as the 2020 presidential election is approaching — and without enough time for a tested and trusted alternative to replace it. That raises serious concerns about the reliability of polling results heading into the election, other survey researchers told POLITICO on the sidelines of their conference, with scrutiny of the industry set to be heavier than ever after President Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016. CONT.
Steven Shepard, Politico