By Dillon Rosenblatt | Arizona Capitol Times
Polls are flooding the world with who’s up, who’s down, and what’s on the mind of the people as the 2020 election is well underway.
And while polling is a cornerstone of politics and elections, teaching about polling isn’t a high priority of public schools, and the media can’t be counted on to fully understand and accurately report on the nuances of a particular survey.
Mike Noble, the managing partner of OH Predictive Insights and the most nationally recognized Arizona pollster, said he can tell not a lot of media members know what they’re doing with polls.
“I love the media, I think they’re great, but I think it’s just kind of this new dynamic of this instant gratification … when you see a poll, and it kind of lines up with maybe a headline or view they were kind of feeling and thinking, then sometimes you get folks that will run and publish a poll without doing any due diligence,” Noble said.
Noble said he can tell who knows their stuff when they ask certain questions like if they conducted the poll themselves, the “top lines,” “cross tabs” or asking for a simple summary breakdown.
