By Tony K, CallHub.io

If the 2016 presidential election polling taught us all anything, it was the need for precise polling and survey methods. Poll after poll concluded that Donald J. Trump had no pathway to victory based on wildly inaccurate numbers. That leaves many political campaigners uncertain about how to move forward and provide their candidates with accurate assessments about how voters lean on salient issues. These are 5 methods used to produce improved election polls and surveys.

Peer To Peer Texting

Peer to peer texting offers pollsters a way to connect with otherwise hidden voters. While telephone polls were once the norm, the widespread use of caller ID, no-call lists and restrictions on calling cell phones made it increasingly difficult to connect with valuable segments of the voter base. Peer to peer texting complies with FCC regulations since a polling volunteer is personally hitting the send button for each text. Surveys within the software allow volunteers to take down responses right on their chat screen with software integrations ensure that the data is instantly updated to a voter database.

Political Robocalls Can Be Impartial

One of the benefits of setting up a political survey via robocall, or robopoll if you will, is that the information is gathered by an automated voice broadcast system. Many major polling outlets utilize robopolls to publish national opinion data about candidates and policy trends. That’s because these automated surveys do not inject the passions of campaign volunteers into the mix. The are very similar to the voice broadcasting used by businesses to connect with consumers. Besides being impartial, these are some of the other benefits to utilizing robopolls.

• Faster and easier to complete than traditional surveys.
• Provide excellent cost-savings benefits.
• Particularly effective in small, target markets and voting districts.
• Regional or local dialect and inflection can be included in recording.
• Does not rely on human labor.

Virtual Phone Banking Streamlines A Personal Connection

The days of volunteers sitting around tables and making calls have evolved considerably due to new technologies. Virtual phone banking has replaced the labor-intensive methods of going down a list and manually dialing community members. Advances in automated and manual dialing allows political campaigns to connect to supporters over phone more efficiently and take down poll responses right on their calling screens. Integrations allow for all polling data to be instantly send to voter databases. Phone conversations also helps pollsters get the input of older generations who who tend to use landlines and are more accustomed to real-life conversations with campaign volunteers.

Online polls are easier

Online polls offer a fast and cheap alternative to phone and text polling. After preparing the poll using online tools such as Opavote, pollsters then email or text the links to the poll to voters. A drawback with online polls is that the sample selection can be skewed because online polls generally work on opt in from voters and certain sections of voters will be more inclined to fill up the poll. There’s also the task of assigning weightage to voters without an internet connection.

These are the best methods methods currently available to pollsters. While it’s possible to find politically passionate individuals to donate their time for managing election polls, running an effective poll requires experienced outfits that understand the intricacies of polling.

Unless you have an experienced pollster working on your campaign, it makes a great deal of sense to outsource your polling requirements to impartial companies with experience in the niche. That real-time intelligence into the voter psyche can lay your foundation for the victory speech on election night.

CallHub is a non-partisan political calling and texting tool used for campaigns, both big and small. It integrates with your voter DB and helps reduce your voter contact costs by 50%.