Election polls have always been interesting. But this year, they have become official players in the Democratic presidential primary race, because polling badly means you don’t get to debate.
It is a bitter reality for the candidates who failed to qualify for next month’s debate, and griping has been in plentiful supply. Some argue that the Democratic National Committee’s qualification criteria are arbitrary — candidates must reach 2 percent support in at least four polls by approved organizations — and that the committee is prematurely culling the field. Others want the D.N.C. to count a wider range of surveys.
But among voters upset that their preferred candidate didn’t make the cut, some objections stem from misunderstandings of how polling works. We talked to pollsters to clear up some points of confusion. CONT.
Maggie Astor, New York Times