After a Tough 2016, Many Pollsters Havent Changed Anything

[n2doc]

A year after polls broadly overestimated Hillary Clinton’s strength in the decisive Rust Belt battleground states, top pollsters and analysts across the survey industry have reached a broad near-consensus on many of the causes of error in the 2016 presidential election.

But so far, public pollsters — typically run by news outlets and colleges — have not changed much about their approach. Few if any of the public pollsters that conducted surveys ahead of Tuesday’s elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey appear to have adopted significant methodological changes intended to better represent the rural, less educated white voters who pollsters believe were underrepresented in pre-election surveys.

On the other hand, private pollsters — typically employed by campaigns and parties — have already begun to make changes. This is especially true among Democrats stunned by Donald J. Trump’s upset victory, but Republicans are making changes as well. The adjustments are already playing out in Virginia, where pollsters will have one of their first chances to put postelection shifts to the test.

“Virginia is an important test case for pollsters to try new methods, given some of the issues with 2016 state-level polling,” said Nick Gourevitch, a Democratic pollster at Global Strategy Group, a firm working with the Democratic Governors’ Association to use the Virginia election to calibrate postelection changes and experiment with new approaches.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/upshot/after-a-tough-2016-many-pollsters-havent-changed-anything.html

[lunamagica]

1. I don't think they overestimated anything. The election was stolen

[kimbutgar]

2. Agree

[uponit7771]

4. +1, I wish the pollsters would come out and say something cause at least you'd

... think they'd want their reputations to be intact !!

Biggest cowards

[HipChick]

5. Agree...

[uponit7771]

3. The silence of the pollsters is one of the biggest tragedies of 2016 election, they say VERY VERY...

... little and expect people to take them seriously next elections.

I'll always contribute what I can to the last second

[StevieM]

6. This article is ridiculous. The polls got it right in 2016. In the final 11 days of the race they

changed dramatically. The Comey intervention turned the entire race on its head.

What is so absurd about this article is that they state that the polls were wrong as if it is indisputable fact. They don't offer any acknowledgment of the possibility that there was a last minute surge/rigging. They essentially take the position that Trump was clearly doing better than we thought all along, and there is no denying that.

In actuality, it is tough to deny that Comey and the FBI intervened in the race, with stunning success, just like they had before.