How Broken Are Election Polls?

​As students of data science, we found the aftermath of the 2016 election fascinating in terms of the discussion major news outlets had regarding the polls. To begin with, we thought this Forbes article was interesting in admitting the shortcomings of polling, however, it did not do a good job in figuring out what the polling errors actually were in the 2016 election.

While there were vast amounts of polls sponsored by a plethora of companies before election day, there were only measuring two things. The first was national sentiment, determined by national polls. The second was individual state sentiment, determined by state polls. Now, this is where the hyperbole thrown out by the media about the polls being wrong needs clarification. ​

Read More