Cross Tabs

The multi-billion dollar online survey industry is rife with fraud, from individual survey hackers to sophisticated crime rings, exploiting the system for profit. Uncover the hidden world of survey fraud and learn how misaligned incentives, fragmented processes, and technological innovations meant to improve feasibility have led to an present threat of bogus respondents and invalid data. In this r...

Political polling operates in a landscape shaped by evolving methodologies, true demographic shifts, and the challenges of capturing accurate data in the digital age. What sample source you draw from, what sample frame you use, how you design your survey questions — all of it can affect the outcome of a survey. In this episode, Farrah Bostic speaks with Andrew Mercer, a senior research methodologi...

The battle for political salience is heating up as campaigns push competing narratives ahead of the 2024 election. But what do the latest polls really tell us about the mood of the electorate and the issues driving their vote? In this episode of Cross Tabs, Aaron Zitner, editor and reporter in the Washington Bureau of the Wall Street Journal, joins host Farrah Bostic to discuss the Wall Street Jou...

In this episode of Cross Tabs, we delve into the complexities and limitations of public opinion polling with guest Mike Podhorzer. Mike, a seasoned political strategist with a rich history in the labor movement, most recently as former political director of the AFL-CIO, walks us through the weaknesses and blind spots of public polling. We touch on topics such as the differences between polling dat...

Ever noticed public opinion pollsters talking about "matching survey respondents to the voter file"? No? Just me? Pollsters use voter file data - public records about who voted - to identify registered and likely voters. This data is used to shape election strategies and predict outcomes. Our guest reveals how raw voter rolls are transformed into powerful tools for micro-targeting and predictive m...

In an era of widespread mistrust in public polling, a deep dive into the world of political surveys reveals stark differences between public and private polling methodologies. Strategic research consultants Shannon Janean Currie and Natalie Lupiani at Benenson Strategy Group share insider insights on crafting effective polls, identifying key voter segments, and navigating the challenges of an incr...

Amelia Showalter , co-founder and CEO of Pantheon Analytics , former Director of Digital Analytics for President Obama’s re-election campaign, talks to Farrah about the use of data experiments by campaigns to drive donations, volunteerism and turnout in elections. They also discuss the art of redistricting and the importance of local knowledge, and the way vote by mail has evolved, both as a parti...

David Radloff , co-founder of Clarity Campaign Labs which provides modeling and analytics, polling and strategy for Democratic campaigns, progressive organizations and non-profits, joins Farrah to talk about how campaigns create and use predictive models - about party preference and about turnout - to develop campaign strategy and predict electoral outcomes. Don't forget to hit subscribe in whatev...

In our second episode of Cross Tabs, Paul Soldera and Farrah Bostic answer listener questions about how questions are formed, why scales work (or don't work) the way they do, what weighting is, why you would want to "oversample" or use quotas in your sample, and what kinds of differences emerge when you're talking to people on the phone, answering a survey online, or letting someone in to check ou...

In our inaugural episode released on Iowa's GOP Caucus day, January 15, 2024, host Farrah Bostic (In the Demo Podcast, The Difference Engine) and pal Paul Soldera (Equation Research), set the table for what Cross Tabs is all about: demystifying what polls are and how they work. Mentioned links: Jill Lepore's "Politics and the New Machine" [ The New Yorker ] Jill Lepore's "The Problems Inherent in...