No matter how you look at it, 2016 was a bad year for the polling industry. The question now is where pollsters go from here.
How quickly can survey researchers truly assess what went wrong? And how do they go about adjusting and rebuilding confidence?
This week, C&E sat down with two longtime pollsters: Gene Ulm, partner at the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies, and Celinda Lake, partner at the Democratic firm Lake Research Partners.
Both pollsters agree there's work to be done in the cycles ahead to ensure pollsters are producing quality results for their clients.
As for what went wrong in 2016? Their analysis is well worth hearing.
Gene Ulm, Public Opinion Strategies
Celinda Lake, Lake Research Partners