WASHINGTON (AP) — Chances are, you’ve never been contacted for an election poll. But the dozens of high-quality election polls that will be released before Election Day represent a reasonable estimate of the opinions of all Americans. Pollsters can’t reach every single household or even come close. So they assemble a group of people with the same range of political affiliations, ages, genders, educational backgrounds and locations as Americans overall. In other words: You may not have been contacted to participate in the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. But someone else who shares your background and outlook was.
