It’s time to stop the doomsday predictions in the polls. The last US elections showed that today’s polls are unfortunately not reliable indicators of results.

Polling errors average 2 to 5 percentage points. Given the proximity of the election, these errors are enormous, rendering the polls largely useless.

Methodological debates over polling are ongoing and unresolved. Consider the following:

1. Polls cannot predict their own inaccuracies – and often turn out to be systematically biased in favor of one candidate or another.
2. Polls measure “likely voters,” that is, people who voted in the last election or two. But they completely ignore, for example, the 14.7 million women, young people, people of color and others who have registered since Kamala Harris joined the race.
3. Deliberately biased polls, mostly from Republicans, flood the media.

So forget about surveys. Breathe deeply. And take to the sidewalk to help elect the candidates of our choice.

George Simonson
Harpswell

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