Nearly six in 10 Americans believe that the federal government should provide funds to states affected by natural disasters without having to cut spending in other areas to do so, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. [cont.] Chris Cillizza & Sean Sullivan, Washington Post Maybe – but […] Read more »
No, it’s not a push poll
Republicans are crying foul over a Public Policy Polling survey that finds Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes tied in a hypothetical 2014 Senate matchup. Two things are true: 1. McConnell is probably not as vulnerable as this poll might suggest. 2. […] Read more »
When Numbers Mislead
… Averages are useful because many traits, behaviors and outcomes are distributed in a bell-shaped curve, with most results clustered around the middle and a much smaller group of outliers at the high and low ends. … But averages can be misleading when a distribution is heavily skewed at one […] Read more »
Pollsters scramble to explain how polls could be so wrong in three provinces
Canada’s pollsters have struck out and are now scrambling to explain how their predictions in three consecutive provincial elections turned out to be so wildly wrong. Strike three came Tuesday when Christy Clark’s Liberals came back from the polling dead to easily recapture government in British Columbia. [cont.] The Canadian […] Read more »
NRCC chief vows to fix polling flaws
Read Greg Walden’s lips: There will not be another GOP polling fiasco in 2014. The Oregon congressman and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee told his fellow GOP lawmakers Wednesday that the NRCC has taken concrete steps to shore up the party’s polling operation for the midterm cycle, sources […] Read more »
One-Third of the Public Doesn’t Care about Immigration Reform
A new iMediaEthics poll suggests Americans are more laid back about immigration reform than what most polls show, with about a third of the public unengaged on the issue. The rest appear to be about evenly divided on whether to allow immigrants living illegally in the U.S. to remain or […] Read more »