Facts & Fiction

By Dr. Kenneth Smith, PMP

Amongst other events, 2022 ushers in many new rounds of national, state and local elections in the US, the Philippines, and doubtless several other countries; so I thought it would be timely to offer some observations about and insights on statistical surveys for political polling — a familiar phenomenon which will inundate us all again during the year.

In addition to monitoring and evaluating programs & projects, surveys are a prime tool political pollsters use to cite the status, track trends about issues of political import, as well as predict the outcomes of contending candidates.  If conducted correctly and objectively, taking the pulse of the electorate political polls can be very informative.  Otherwise, such surveys only become propaganda practices of the unscrupulous to deliberately distort public perception &/or persuade potential voters to favor particular candidates &/or particular positions on contentious issues.

Although there are many professional polling organizations, pollsters come in all colors, shapes and sizes with varying ethical standards, and I sometimes wonder whether partisan pollsters even really want to know the true situation,^[1] or whether — at the outset — they deliberately design and launch their surveys to distort the results in favor of their candidate, or a desired outcome.

For the full article click here in PM World Journal, Volume XI, Issue 1 - January 2022

For more information contact Dr. Kenneth Smith