… As a pollster I naturally want politicians – and everyone else – to take our figures seriously. We help the public to speak and, we hope, politicians to listen. As democrats, we believe in the importance of the dialogue between voters and those who aspire to govern them. When […] Read more »
A public opinion trend that matters: Priorities for gun policy
Last month, the Pew Research Center released a survey showing that a question about gun policy we have been asking since 1993 had passed a key milestone: For the first time in more than two decades, a higher percentage (52%) said it was more important to protect the right of […] Read more »
Prof. Philip E. Converse, Expert on How Voters Decide, Dies at 86
“You have the vote of every thinking person,” a woman assured Adlai E. Stevenson during one of his presidential campaigns. To which Stevenson, so the story goes, replied skeptically: “That’s not enough madam — we need a majority!” According to Philip E. Converse, Stevenson’s skepticism was well founded. In 1960, […] Read more »
Pew Research will call more cellphones in 2015
The number of Americans who rely only on a cellphone for their telephone service continues to grow. … To keep pace with this rapid trend, the Pew Research Center will increase the percentage of respondents interviewed on cellphones in its typical national telephone surveys to 65%; 35% of interviews will […] Read more »
There is danger at the margin
Pollsters and pundits spend lots of time studying margins — how far ahead or behind a given candidate is relative to his or her opponent. Focusing on margins is a dangerous game, however, and one of the reasons polls appeared off the mark this past year. Surveys are designed to […] Read more »
Mokrzycki, former AP polling director, dies at 52
Mike Mokrzycki, a former journalist and election polling specialist at The Associated Press who later started his own survey research business, died of an apparent heart attack, his wife said. He was 52. … In 1994, Mokrzycki began coordinating exit poll analyses throughout the United States, training reporters and editors […] Read more »