Learn how to parse political polls, 9 am Sept. 24

Just in time for the fall campaign crush, the Election Boot Camp series will hold a training session on polling at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 24, at the National Press Club.

Cliff Zukin, a professor of public policy and political science at Rutgers University and a past president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, will explain how polls are conducted, what to look for in the methodology and how to determine the legitimacy of a poll. He’ll pay special attention to problems surrounding election polls, detailing how they differ from other polls and why two or more polls on the same election at the same time sometimes produce different results.

The free program will run from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Club. Register here.

Most people just want to know the results of a poll. But how the findings were derived is sometimes just as important to the story. Among the questions the session will cover:

How can a reporter or editor tell a good poll from a bad one?
Who did the pollsters survey?
How are “likely voters” determined?
How can results be affected by question wording and ordering?
Were the responses weighted, and what does it mean if they were?
Can you do a valid telephone survey without including cell phones?
And if the pollsters won't tell you how they got their results, what should you do?

The event is co-sponsored by the Regional Reporters Association, the NPC Journalism Institute and the Professional Development Committee.