poll

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noun

The uppermost part of the body: head, noddle, pate. Slang bean, block, conk, dome, noggin, noodle, nut. See body/spirit.

1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status of an input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external event has been registered.

2. To repeatedly call or check with someone: “I keep polling him, but he's not answering his phone; he must be swapped out.”

3. To ask. “Lunch? I poll for a takeout order daily.”

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The broad end or striking face of a hammer.

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Polling is a form of surveying conducted by the canvassing or questioning of a universe. A universe can consist of a particular group, such as steel workers, or can rely on a more general population, such as a political survey of public opinion in an election year. Polling dates back to 1824 in the United States, when two newspapers, the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian and the Raleigh Star, attempted to predict the presidential election by use of "show votes." By the twentieth century, polls would be taken by magazines, such as Farm Journal (1912) and Literary Digest (1916). However, these polls were mostly local in scope. The first major national poll was conducted during World War I, and asked participants whether or not the United States should become involved in the war.

In 1936, the process of polling would change forever. George H. Gallup, founder of the American Institute of Public Opinion (1935), had issued a challenge to Literary Digest, claiming that he could more accurately predict the outcome of that year's presidential election. At the time, this seemed foolhardy, for the Literary Digest had correctly predicted every presidential election correctly since 1916. Confident in his methods, Gallup had developed a system of interviewing based on quota samples, which employed a relatively small number of people to mathematically determine the views of the public at large. He came up with fifty-four different questions, and considered each question demographically, with such key determinants as age, sex, income, and region. The Literary Digest, meanwhile, had conducted an old-fashioned straw poll, based on telephone and car buyer lists. In the past, such lists had been serviceable, but in 1936, during the depression, they proved to be heavily biased in favor of the Republican candidate, Alfred M. Landon. For this reason, the Literary Digest, having predicted a landslide victory for Landon, was upstaged by the audacious Gallup, who correctly predicted another victory for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other, lesser-known forecasters, such as Elmo Roper and Archibald Crossley, had also predicted Franklin's victory using similar sampling methods.

However, even Gallup would be proven wrong in the presidential election of 1948. In that year, all major pollsters predicted the Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey of New York, would defeat Harry S. Truman, the current president. Gallup had used the same sampling techniques as before, but had made a terrible mistake by concluding his poll weeks before Election Day. Furthermore, Gallup had made the incorrect assumption that the "undecided" votes would split in much the same way as the "decided" ones. This would prove untrue, as most of the "undecideds" either voted for Truman or did not vote at all.

Gallup would learn from his mistakes and recover ever stronger after the election. He improved his sampling techniques, taking into account a greater number of influences, and reanalyzing the effects of the inner city and other regions, which, to his undoing, his interviewers had neglected in 1948. Gallup also made certain that polling was done consistently, a process known as tracking, and that the likelihood of a person actually voting was now also taken into consideration.

With these improvements, Gallup's organization was able to accurately predict future elections. Between 1952 and 2000, the Gallup poll, as it came to be known, achieved an average accuracy of just over 2 percent deviation in presidential elections. In the controversial 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, Gallup's final preelection prediction had the race as a "statistical dead heat," meaning that the candidates were locked within a range of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Gallup also introduced polling to social issues. He conducted polls on such complicated topics as the Vietnam War and education. He felt that polls gave the people a voice, and that they were therefore an important aspect of democracy.

Many, however, criticize polling, claiming that it has a "bandwagon effect" on voters, and too much control over politicians. Yet polling continues to play an important role in the political process.

Polling techniques are also extensively used in industry to conduct market research. Companies use sampling in order to determine what products consumers are willing to buy. Such techniques may include random sampling, in which everyone is a potential candidate for an interview; stratified sampling, in which sampling candidates are divided into nonoverlapping groups; quota sampling, random sampling subject to demographic controls; and cluster sampling, in which "clusters," or groups, are selected from various sectors of the population, such as the middle class or working class.

Bibliography

Chaffee, S. H. "George Gallup and Ralph Nafziger: Pioneers of Audience Research." Mass Communication and Society 3 (2000): 317–327.

Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.

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IN BRIEF: A voting or listing of opinions by persons.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. — Warren Buffett

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

Top of the head; the occiput.

• p. evil — a condition of horses involving inflammation of the supra-atlantal bursa and infection with Brucella abortus, occasionally Brucella suis or Actinomyces spp. The bursa is swollen and painful initially and may rupture to discharge through a sinus.

  Poll evil in horse. By permission from Knottenbelt DC, Pascoe RR, Diseases and Disorders of the Horse, Saunders, 2003

• p. Hereford cattle — see hereford.
• p. pad — worn on top of the bridle to protect a horse's poll while traveling.
• p. presentation — see poll presentation.
• p. Shorthorn cattle — see shorthorn.

For a list of words related to poll, see:

• Elections and Campaigns - poll: survey of a scientifically selected sample of voters prior to election to determine preferences; expression of opinion by voting; (vb) process or count votes

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See words rhyming with "poll."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Poll.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - valgliste, afstemning, stemmetal, valgsted
v. tr. - foretage afstemning i, opnå stemmer, optælle
v. intr. - stemme

idioms:

• go to the polls    gå til valg
• poll tax    kopskat

Nederlands (Dutch)
stem uitbrengen, opinie peilen, één voor één ondervragen, schaap scheren, verkiezing, opinie onderzoek, enquête, behaarde bovenkant van het hoofd, platte kant van een hamer

Français (French)
n. - scrutin, vote, élections, suffrages, dépouillement, résultats, voix, liste électorale, liste de contribuables, sondage
v. tr. - obtenir (des votes), interroger (un groupe), (Comput) interroger
v. intr. - recueillir (des voix), voter

idioms:

• go to the polls    se rendre aux urnes
• poll tax    (GB) impôts locaux

Deutsch (German)
n. - Abstimmung, Wahl, Umfrage, Kopf
v. - (Stimmen) erhalten, erforschen, kappen

idioms:

• go to the polls    wählen gehen, seine Stimme abgeben, zur Wahl gehen
• poll tax    Kopfsteuer

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - εκλογές/-ή, ψηφοφορία, καταμέτρηση ψήφων, αριθμός ψήφων, κάλπη, εκλογικός κατάλογος, ήμερος παπαγάλος, σφυγμομέτρηση της κοινής γνώμης, δημοσκόπηση
v. - ψηφίζω, συγκεντρώνω ψήφους, παίρνω/συγκεντρώνω ψήφους, σφυγμομετρώ την κοινή γνώμη

idioms:

• go to the polls    προσφεύγω σε εκλογές
• poll tax    (οικον.) κεφαλικός φόρος

Italiano (Italian)
votare, inchiesta

idioms:

• go to the polls    andare alle urne
• poll tax    tassa elettorale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - votação (f), pesquisa de opinião (f), cabeça (f)
v. - votar

idioms:

• go to the polls    ir às urnas
• poll tax    imposto individual

Русский (Russian)
голосовать, проводить опрос, голосование, опрос

idioms:

• go to the polls    голосовать, выбора
• poll tax    подушный налог

Español (Spanish)
n. - votación, encuesta, escrutinio, elecciones
v. tr. - votar, empadronar, registrar, esquilar, desmochar
v. intr. - votar

idioms:

• go to the polls    presentarse en las elecciones
• poll tax    impuesto de capitación

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - valförrättning, röstlängd, röstetal, valresultat, röstsammanräkning, undersökning, skult (skämts.), nacke, hornlös boskap, (hatt)kulle
v. - samla röster, registrera väljare (röster), förrätta val, avge röst, undersöka, hamla (träd)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
民意测验, 投票, 选举, 民意测验记录, 投票数, 对...进行民意测验, 使投票, 获得, 要求每一成员明确表态

idioms:

• go to the polls    去投票所
• poll tax    人头税

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 民意測驗, 投票, 選舉, 民意測驗記錄, 投票數
v. tr. - 對...進行民意測驗, 使投票, 獲得, 要求每一成員明確表態
v. intr. - 投票

idioms:

• go to the polls    去投票所
• poll tax    人頭稅

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 투표, 득표집계, 선거인 명부
v. tr. - 명부에 등록하다, 여론 조사를 하다
v. intr. - 투표하다

idioms:

• go to the polls    투표하러 가다, 선거에 (후보자로) 나서다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 投票, 投票数, 選挙人名簿, 投票所, 世論調査
v. - 得る, 投票する, 世論調査をする, 投票させる, 角を切る, 枝先を刈る

idioms:

• go to the polls    投票に行く
• poll tax    人頭税

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) رأس, , القذال : جماع مؤخر الرأس, , مؤخر العنق, اقتراع, تصويت, تسجيل أصوات النقترعين (فعل) يسجل, ينال عددا معينا من الأصوات, يجز الشعر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מישאל, הצבעה, תא, רשימת הבוחרים, מספר המצביעים, ראש, תוכי, בקר ללא קרניים‬
v. tr. - ‮גזם צמרת-עץ, גדע קרניים, ערך מישאל, קיבל (קולות), מנה קולות‬
v. intr. - ‮הצביע‬

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