Asher’s central objective—to help students become savvy consumers of polls—has only grown in importance as polling data have become more central to public and civic discourse. His trusted and brief guide offers solid grounding on polls: how the media cover them, their use in campaigns and elections, and their interpretation. Methodological aspects of polling are explained simply, in a non-technical fashion. 

Bringing the book fully up to date with new data and scholarship, this edition covers polls in a fragmented media environment and nontraditional approaches to polling, as well as the use of age cohorts to trace public opinion trends over time.

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1. Polling and the Public

2. The Problem of Nonattitudes

3. Wording and Context of Questions

4. Sampling Techniques

5. Interviewing and Data Collection Procedures

6. The Media and the Polls

7. Polls and Elections

8. Analyzing and Interpreting Polls

9. Polling and Democracy

Herbert Asher is professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University. He has written numerous articles and books on legislative politics, electoral politics, and political methodology, including American Labor Unions in the Electoral Arena, with Eric S. Heberlig, Randall B. Ripley, and Karen Snyder (2001); Presidential Elections and American Politics, Fifth Edition (1992); Theory-Building and Data Analysis in the Social Sciences, coedited with Herbert F. Weisberg, John H. Kessel, and W. Phillips Shively (1984); and Causal Modeling, revised edition (1983).