Marist Poll Receives A+ Rating from FiveThirtyEight

The Marist Poll was recently recognized for their work, this time by national data journalism organization, FiveThirtyEight. On Nov. 5 Marist received an A+ rating, in the same running as other major polls like SurveyUSA and Gallup. 

This major recognition comes amongst several others for the poll, including being recognized by President Donald Trump via Twitter earlier this year. 

FiveThirtyEight is a news organization run by Nate Silver affiliated with ESPN and ABC News, and part of their coverage includes analyzing the practices and results of polling operations all over the country. 

They give an overall letter grade to the polls they examine based on how well pollsters perform in categories like predictability, bias, correctly called races, and margins of error. The analysis comes from studying the methodology used by pollsters, as well as the historical accuracy of a poll’s performance, according to their site.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s results, Marist has called 84 percent of races correctly and boasts a small margin of error at only 5.2 percent. FiveThirtyEight’s ratings also report that Marist Poll has above-average quality when compared to over 500 other polls analyzed in the survey.

Polls completed with live callers may be on the decline in popularity and quality, but Marist continues to perform well on a national scale. Surveys like the poll at Marist play an integral part in elections when it comes to predicting races and gauging public opinion. With the upcoming presidential elections, Marist Poll is putting a particular focus on political polling when making calls to various demographics. 

The Marist Poll’s success continues to be a source of pride for the college and the dedicated students and staff who work at the poll. This kind of commendable rating wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of nearly 300 poll employees making survey calls for hours on end. Jessica Polito ‘23, a student working at the poll, was especially thrilled to hear about the rating from FiveThirtyEight. 

Polito said while the results are fantastic, “They aren’t surprising. I’ve only worked there for a few months but everyone is very professional and organized.”

The positive results from FiveThirtyEight put Marist in the national spotlight. “It’s definitely helpful for us because more people out there will know about us. They’ll know that we’re a respectable poll,” says Polito.