Can the Polling Industry Learn From Its Mistakes? By Robert Barnes
The American Association for Public Opinion Research convenes today for its 72nd annual conference. The first such conference took place in 1945, right before the last presidential election that led to widespread concern about the science and art of polling. But buried within that 1948 election were the seeds of the rebirth of polling as a credible profession for the next six decades. After the disastrous polling in the last presidential election, another rebirth is in order.