Coming off a weekend of widespread voter celebration, we still can’t help but wonder: why were the pollsters so wrong this year—again?
On today’s show, we do a deep dive into the world of political polling and election forecasting with G. Elliott Morris, data journalist at The Economist.
He and Patty discuss theories for why the polls overestimated Biden support this election cycle, waning trust in pollsters, the phenomenon of the “shy Trump voter,” how polls affect the news, the future of public polling and what could fix it, and why all of this matters to the average American.
G. Elliott Morris is a data journalist at The Economist. He publishes a free weekly newsletter, The Crosstab, and is writing a book about polls and democracy contracted with Norton for publication in fall 2021.
Cover photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash