Polling and the Presidential Election

The role and influence of political pollsters in presidential politics have grown enormously in recent years. Once little more than behind-the-scenes technicians, presidential pollsters are now highly visible campaign decision makers and strategists. Surprisingly, there is only a handful of presidential pollsters, Republican and Democratic survey takers with recent experience in all phases of presidential campaigning. Still, despite their small number, these latter-day oracles often have considerable campaign clout. Based on survey data and political judgment, presidential pollsters identify strategic campaign themes and concepts, determine key campaign issues, and help target groups of voters. Using sophisticated polling techniques and other tools of political communication research and analysis, campaign pollsters provide the numbers that in large part determine how and where candidates will campaign, where campaign resources will be spent, and how candidates will conduct themselves for critical events such as conventions and debates.