As the peak of a major election year approaches, the pace of political polling ramps up. In the next couple of months, pollsters will be at their busiest trying to get a glimpse into the political future. Political ads will be flooding the airwaves and campaign teams will be hitting the streets and manning the phones. As a result of all this heightened activity, political research will also be booming. The political research that will be conducted in the next month will range from the avid pollster working directly for a candidate’s campaign to media outlets trying to report on the latest trends, to political science graduate students conducting polling research.
With the political focus changing with every speech and every debate, political polling has to be fast to catch and respond to changing trends. As with any form of research, there are options when it comes to the mode of data collection. Today’s discussion centers around using the online space for political polling. What are the advantages and what do we need to be aware of.