Critical Insights

Political polling, the experts say, is little more than a snapshot of voters' feelings at any particular time. It takes several polls showing similar numbers -- or a definite trend over weeks -- to point to a believable result.

It also requires a professional team with proven methodology to achieve a high level of accuracy. The voter segment sampled has to be exactly right. The questions have to be right. It can't be done by amateurs no matter how talented..

Nine of the 11 candidates for governor in last week's primary election had bad days. But none of them had a worse day then the folks who were paid to predict the election outcome. The professional pollsters got it all wrong.

At least three polls attempted tried to predict the outcome of the gubernatorial race. All failed. One of those polls tried to pick the winner of the tax referendum. It was hugely wrong on that one too.

Why do the media continue to encourage these efforts when they fail so often?