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The Quinnipiac Polling Institute is a nationally recognized public opinion polling center.  The polling institute is used by more than a dozen states nationwide.

“Former President John Lahey, it was part of his vision of turning a small college into a major national university,” said Director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute Doug Schwartz.

Polls are distributed to news sources by emails. In order to create polls, student employees call cell phones to get the information needed.

“The people who have only a cell phone are actually young people. An overwhelming majority of them do not have a landline so it’s really important to call cell phones,” Schwartz said.

Quinnipiac’s polls have developed over the years. When the polls began in 1988, paper and pencil were the only method of getting information from people. And in 1994, when Schwartz began working for the polls, there was a total of 12 interviewers. That number is now 200.  

Shannon Bailey, a sophomore student employee at the institute described what it’s like to be an interviewer.  

“We call people by a random number system and we have to ask them if they would like to participate in the poll. If they say yes, we go through the entire 15 minute long poll,” Bailey said.

With the midterm election coming up, the polling institute and its employees are focused on the election. And after the 2016 election, Schwartz believes the polls have not received negative feedback.  

“I do think there is some skepticism but it’s misguided. The polls really were just as accurate in ‘16 as they’ve always been,” Schwartz said.

“Look at how much talk there is about poles. I don’t think there has been many real consequences in terms of negativity towards polls since the election because the media uses polls just as much as they ever did,” Schwartz said.