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Politics
Doug Schwartz, Director of the Quinnipiac Poll, Quinnipiac University

Why the margin of error matters more than ever in reading 2024 election polls – a pollster with 30 years of experience explains

A political opinion poll aims to get a representative sample of the wider public. borzaya/iStock / Getty Images Plus

In just about any discussion of a poll about the very close presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, you’ll hear the phrase “within the poll’s margin of error.” Those words signal that it is a tight race with no clear leader, even if one of them has a slightly larger percentage of support, like 48% to 47%.

As the director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, which has been taking the pulse of the public on policy issues and elections for the past 30 years, I’ve noted that people have been paying more attention to this technical term since at least 2016.

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