Rather than ask every voter to state their preference in candidates, polling research companies poll a relatively small number of people who their favorite candidate is. The members of the statistical sample help to determine the preferences of the entire population. There are good polls and not so good polls, so it is important to ask the following questions when reading any results.
Who Was Polled?
A candidate makes their appeal to the voters because the voters are the ones who cast ballots. Consider the following groups of people:
Adults
Registered voters
Likely voters
When Was the Poll Conducted?
The dates when a poll was conducted should be noted to determine if current events have had time to affect the numbers in the results.
What Methods Were Used?
Which of the following two scenarios is more likely to accurately determine the public sentiment.
A blog asks its readers to click on a box to show their support of the bill. A total of 5,000 people participate and there is overwhelming rejection of the bill.
A polling firm randomly calls 1,000 registered voters and asks them about their support of the bill. The firm finds that its respondents are more or less evenly split for and against the bill.
How Large Is the Sample?
Surprisingly, sample sizes as small as 1,500 are typically used for polls such as presidential approval, whose margin of error is within a couple of percentage points.
Bringing It All Together
Not all polls are created equally, and often details are buried in footnotes or omitted entirely in news articles that quote the poll. That's why it's important to be informed on how a poll was designed.
See more details at: https://www.thoughtco.com/statistics-and-political-polls-3126164
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