History
The Role of Political Polling in Elections
Quick fact
A properly conducted poll of just 1,000 randomly selected respondents can represent the views of over 300 million people with a margin of error of roughly ±3 percentage points——the same accuracy you would get from surveying tens of thousands of people if done carefully.
Why this is interesting
Every election cycle, we're bombarded with polls——but why do they sometimes get it so wrong? A poll that surveys only 1,000 people is supposed to represent millions of voters——how can that possibly work?