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Time Magazine

Time Magazine

Nation: Where the Polls Went Wrong

Time Magazine
Summary
Nutrition label

69% Informative

Pollsters were unanimous in their findings that the coming choice between President Jimmy Carter and Challenger Ronald Reagan was “too close to call’s” When the votes were counted, the former California Governor had defeated Carter by a margin of 51% to 41% in the popular vote.

Pollsters are criticizing their competition's judgment, methodology, reliability and even honesty.

Pollsters disagree over how much the Reagan margin over Carter grew in the last few days before the election.

Harris organization was four points off Reagan ’s actual voting percentage, the largest error factor it has ever had in a presidential election.

Most private surveyors stopped work too early to pick up the last-minute switches.

Pollsters say they are not solely to blame for misleading the public.

They say the fault must be shared with the press, which has never fully understood the limitations of surveying.

Negative voting, large numbers of undecideds, low turnout made polling this year more difficult.

VR Score

83

Informative language

88

Neutral language

38

Article tone

semi-formal

Language

English

Language complexity

46

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

detected

Time-value

short-lived

External references

no external sources

Source diversity

no sources

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