Polling is 'done,' says pollster

(Image credit: Elaine Cromie/Getty Images)

published 4 November 2020

Did 2020 kill the polling industry? A lot of analysts, and even some pollsters, sure think so.

Prominent GOP pollster Frank Luntz told Axios that the election "has been devastating for my industry," which he thinks is "done."

Politico's Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman, meanwhile, said "polling is a wreck and should be blown up."

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Most polls had the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, unseating President Trump. That remains feasible, but the criticism of the industry is being waged primarily because of the margins. Biden still has a path to 270 or more electoral votes if he picks up crucial swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, but many surveys had him winning those states in much clearer fashion. A narrow Biden victory, therefore, may wind up proving to be an even bigger indictment of pollsters than Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.