What does political polling miss?

Politics in Question

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee takes a big picture look at political polling with Michael Podhorzer. Podhorzer is a senior fellow at the Center for American Process where he writes weekly on election data and political strategy. He is the former political director of the AFL-CIO. Podhorzer founded the Analyst Institute, the Independent Strategic Research Collaborative (ISRC), the Defend Democracy Project, and the Polling Consortium, and helped found America Votes, Working America, For Our Future, and Catalist.

Does political polling account for place, community, and political organization? How does the present approach to polling overlook state and local dynamics? To what extent have the Democratic and Republican parties altered their geographical bases of support in recent decades? How have the cultural and economic aspects of place shaped the two parties? And is a kakistocracy? These are some of the questions Michael and Lee ask in this week’s episode.