LibGuides: Election 2016: Election 2016: Polls and News Sources

Polls

Throughout the election process, many organizations regularly conduct polls in an attempt to gauge the public mood and predict the election results. The following are among the most respected and cited polling sources.

FiveThirtyEight: 2016 Election Forecast A popular website founded in 2008 by political analyst Nate Silver that covers many topics but is best known for its political news.
Gallup: Election 2016 Founded by George Gallup, this organization has accurately predicted the winner of every presidential race since 1936, except for 1948, when it erroneously predicted that Republican Thomas Dewey would defeat Democrat Harry Truman.
Pew Research Center: Election 2016 The Pew Research Center defines itself as "a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world."

Fact Checking

With the proliferation of information and communication technologies, Americans today are bombarded with information on a 24/7 basis. On the positive side, interested voters have access to unprecedented amounts on information on the candidates and the issues. On the negative side, voters are also subjected to a great deal of misinformation. Well-informed voters must develop the ability to critically analyze the nonstop flow of "news," both legitimate and bogus.

Fortunately, many organizations regularly fact-check the claims and assertions of the various candidates and political machines. The links below will take you to respected fact-checking sites.

FactCheck.org: Presidential Election 2016 FactCheck is associated with the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Politifact A fact-checking site run by the Tampa Bay Times.
Washington Post Fact Checker A fact-checking service run by The Washington Post that assigns "pinocchios" to grade the inaccuracy of a claim or statement.