How to read polls like an expert — or, at least, not like a newbie

With just over a month until the midterm elections, those paying attention to politics will see an increasing flurry of polling centered on individual contests or the broad trend of views of President Biden and how people plan to vote in House races. …

Having already suffered 13 bouts of apoplexy after seeing headlines misrepresent what a poll indicates about a race, I decided that I would cut to the chase and ask people who actually look at or conduct polls for a living to offer basic guidelines for their consumption. I asked each to give three tips for laypeople encountering a poll; being good with numbers, each came in at precisely three. CONTINUED

Philip Bump, Washington Post


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