Poll Hub

In this episode of Poll Hub , what factors into pollsters decisions to poll? Why do some electoral contests have few public opinion polls? The team at Poll Hub breaks it down. Then, from the mailroom, the crew answers some of the most frequently asked questions about polls. From push polls to how participants are chosen, Poll Hub clears up the confusion and the misconceptions. And, Poll Hub celebr...

Poll Hub and The Marist College Poll are pleased to present a special four-part panel series, 1968: The Year That Rocked American Politics . In this fourth and final installment of the series, the Poll Hub team welcomes author, journalist, and former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jeff Greenfield. Through his unique lens as a staffer on Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, Greenfield offers h...

Poll Hub and The Marist College Poll are pleased to present a special four-part panel series, 1968: The Year That Rocked American Politics . In this third installment of the series, the Poll Hub team welcomes Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker Lynn Novick. Novick, who is the co-producer and co-director with Ken Burns of the 10-part, 18-hour epic documentary, “The Vietnam War,” discusses the...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said this week that President Donald Trump believes he has the “power” to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But, do Americans think Mueller should be fired? In this edition of Poll Hub , the team discusses the latest poll numbers about the Mueller investigation and whether or not there has been a change in public opinion. Then, New York State Governor A...

Poll Hub and The Marist College Poll are pleased to present a special four-part panel series, 1968: The Year That Rocked American Politics . In this second installment of the series, the Poll Hub team welcomed journalist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos, Bob Herbert. Herbert, writer and producer of the documentary Against All Odds: The Fight for a Black Middle Class , discusses...

With the deadline to file the questionnaire for the 2020 U.S. Census imminent, the Department of Commerce’s decision to include a question about citizenship is drawing ire. In this episode of Poll Hub , the team gets at the heart of the controversy, discusses the stakes for including the question, and clears up the confusion about the history of the U.S. Census. Then, it’s opening day for Major Le...

This spring Dr. Lee Miringoff, Director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, is bringing four distinguished guests to the Marist College campus in Poughkeepsie, New York for public conversations about 1968. We’ll talk about the war, civil rights, political upheaval and other issues that framed 1968 and how it relates to our current political climate. Our first guest was E.J. Dionne who is a...

Tomorrow marks one month since the horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. To remember those lost and to protest gun violence, students across the country are expected to walk out of their classrooms for 17 minutes. In this episode of Poll Hub, the team uses the  latest Marist Poll data to contextualize the scheduled protest. Do Americans think studen...

The latest Marist Poll has President Donald Trump’s approval rating at 42%, his highest approval rating since taking office. In this week’s edition of Poll Hub , the crew provides an in-depth look at the factors driving the president’s improved standing and responds to the critiques of the poll’s methodology. Plus, Americans have spoken on the question of taxing steel and aluminum imports. Where d...

A recent Washington Post  analysis by Philip Bump asserts Democrats are more likely to say they approve of President Donald Trump’s job performance when they respond to a poll conducted online or via IVR than by telephone. In turn, Bump argues, the president’s job approval rating is higher in polls conducted online rather by phone. In this episode, the  Poll Hub team debunks Bump’s analysis throug...

The latest mass school shooting – the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018 – has renewed an age-old American debate about guns. Does the Second Amendment (2A) protect the right of any American to own any gun under any circumstance? Should we ban assault weapons like the AR-15 used in Parkland? Should background checks and age limits...

It is a common pollster criticism during election seasons – oversampling either Democrats or Republicans. In this episode of Poll Hub , the team explains why modeling to party is an incorrect assumption, what party identification does and does not mean, and whether the two party system is in jeopardy. And, U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia has already taken steps to interfere in this year’s mi...

Unlike his predecessors, President Donald Trump has tied his job performance to that of the stock market. With the Dow Jones plummeting at the beginning of the week, what does this mean for the president? Do Americans attribute the market’s ups and downs to him? Poll Hub breaks it down.   And, it’s time for the U.S. Census. Every ten years, there is debate about the questions to be included, and t...

The contents of the so-called “Nunes memo” are expected to be released as early as today. The memo has created a firestorm that, to some, signals a constitutional crisis nearing the level of Watergate. In this episode, Jay DeDapper speaks with Benjamin Wittes -- Editor in Chief of Lawfare, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and author -- about the risks of releasing...

The American workforce is undergoing a profound change. According to the latest NPR/Marist Poll of the future of work, one in five American workers are contract workers. Who are they, and what kind of an impact do they have on the labor force? Poll Hub has the answers. And, the language of polls… Survey questions are a sign of the times. In this segment, the Poll Hub team looks back on questions d...

Tomorrow marks one year since President Donald Trump took the oath of office. So, how’s the president doing? Despite a year marked by a job approval rating hovering in the thirties and a majority of Americans rating Trump’s presidency as a “failure,” there are some bright spots for the president. What are they, and what impact could President Trump’s job approval rating have on the 2018 midterm el...

Oprah Winfrey’s speech at the Golden Globes sparked renewed enthusiasm about a potential presidential candidacy by the journalist, talk show host, and actress. This week, Poll Hub takes an in-depth look at what the polls show about a possible Oprah run against President Donald Trump in 2020. They also dig into how the concept of an “outsider” candidate has evolved in politics.   And, it has been f...

In this episode of Poll Hub , the brain trust of The Marist Poll shares its poll watcher’s checklist for the 2018 midterm elections for United States Congress. What can pollsters and media pundits do to prevent the public from being pointed in the wrong direction? Stay tuned. And, according to the Pew Research Center, more and more people are getting their news from social media. The Poll Hub team...

Using a compilation of polls from 2017, a recent Washington Post article asserts that, historically, Americans’ outlook about the direction of the country is impacted by whether or not the economy is doing well. And if it is, that credit tends to go to the President of the United States. But, if 2017 is the barometer, that correlation no longer holds true. In this episode of Poll Hub , the crew pi...

With the passage of the tax reform bill, the Republicans in Congress hope to start off the New Year with a sense that the GOP-controlled Congress can have legislative success. But, with so many questions about tax reform left unanswered, is this really a win for Republicans? As the Poll Hub team discusses , the danger for the Republicans is how tax reform unfolds in 2018 and whether the GOP can ma...

The special election for U.S. Senate in Alabama has been a near-perfect encapsulation of problems with political polls. Some have used proven scientific methods, others have not. Some have been transparent with their data and methodology, others…not so much. And then there are the poll averages. The widely reported Real Clear Politics’ last poll average prior to Election Day had Republican Roy Moo...

With trust in the U.S. electoral system waning and indications of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election looming, could public opinion polls assume a new role in American democracy? In the 1930’s George Gallup envisioned the majority viewpoint as having a place in the dialogue of democracy. Eight decades later, polls are judged by their accuracy in predicting the elections. But, wha...

In a candid and enlightening interview with Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and Atlantic Media's editorial director for strategic partnerships, Brownstein expounds upon the composition of the two main political parties in the United States and how the flux of the Democratic and Republican parties helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. Brownstein, who was among the first to i...

Allegations of sexual misconduct against the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, Roy Moore, have rocked the special election in the state. In this reddest of red states, the polls are inconsistent, and many lack the scientific rigor that instills confidence in the polls. Can the polls be believed? How volatile is the contest, and how difficult is it to identify likely voters given the...

President Donald Trump has certainly been in the thick of things during his first 10 months in office, but his job approval rating has changed little since he took the Oath of Office. As this episode of Poll Hub explains, President Trump maintains the support of his base and focuses on issues that interest his core group of supporters. But, a majority of Americans consider the president’s policies...