Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
The Analytical Promise of Presidential Elections
Every four years as we cross the summer doldrums through the Labor Day holiday, the fall classic calls upon us. It is not the fall classic of balls and strikes, but rather the one of debates, polls and advertising. The fall classic I am speaking of is the presidential election and as an avid yet independent political observer, I watch this fall classic with interest.
This fall classic is like none other with historic diversity spread amongst both parties and no incumbent to reckon with. As in every presidential fall classic, we are inundated with data. Polling numbers of every kind is propagated--national, state and issue-specific. From an analytical perspective, it is absolutely fascinating. Yet as a professional who has focused on analytic specificity for so long, it nonetheless seems so non-specific and ambiguous.
My belief is that modern polling still suffers from a lack of modernization. Our polls still seem uni-dimensional. Every one sounds the same. Let’s call up 500 people and ask them who they’d vote for on election day. I could get a 10th grade stats student to come up with the same level of sophistication for a high school student council election. Thus, we see two polls conducted on the same day in the same state have wide swings in terms of outcome.
So when I speak of dimensionality, the polls …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS