What Does The Harris Poll Do?
The Harris Poll has not used the phrase “margin of error” for many years. In our standard methodology (see below) we explain why not and we seek to educate our readers about the different sources of error which may make our surveys inaccurate. TABLE 1 WHAT DO THE WORDS “MARGIN OF ERROR” MEAN? “When you see the statement about “margin of error of a survey being plus or minus 3 percent” do you think this statement means all of the results of the survey are accurate to within a maximum of 3 percent given all types of error or something else?” Base: All Adults Total Results are accurate to within a maximum of 3 percent given all types of error % 52 Something else % 39 Not sure % 10 Note: Percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding TABLE 2 WHAT TYPES OF ERROR ARE INCLUDED WHEN PHRASE “MARGIN OF ERROR” IS USED “When you see the phrase “margin of error” what types of possible sources of error do you believe it includes?” Base: All Adults Total Error caused by not surveying the entire po
