Poll Hub

The latest mass school shooting – the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018 – has renewed an age-old American debate about guns.

Does the Second Amendment (2A) protect the right of any American to own any gun under any circumstance? Should we ban assault weapons like the AR-15 used in Parkland? Should background checks and age limits be reassessed?

It is a common pollster criticism during election seasons – oversampling either Democrats or Republicans. In this episode of Poll Hub, the team explains why modeling to party is an incorrect assumption, what party identification does and does not mean, and whether the two party system is in jeopardy.

And, U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia has already taken steps to interfere in this year’s midterm elections. But, according to the latest Marist Poll, a majority of Americans do not think Russia will play a role in the elections. What accounts for the disconnect? Poll Hub takes a look.

Unlike his predecessors, President Donald Trump has tied his job performance to that of the stock market. With the Dow Jones plummeting at the beginning of the week, what does this mean for the president? Do Americans attribute the market’s ups and downs to him? Poll Hub breaks it down.

And, it’s time for the U.S. Census. Every ten years, there is debate about the questions to be included, and this year, that disagreement focuses on citizenship and race. What’s at stake? Why should we care? Spoiler alert: money is involved. Poll Hub explains.

The contents of the so-called “Nunes memo” are expected to be released as early as today. The memo has created a firestorm that, to some, signals a constitutional crisis nearing the level of Watergate.

In this episode, Jay DeDapper speaks with Benjamin Wittes -- Editor in Chief of Lawfare, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and author -- about the risks of releasing this sensitive information and what it means for the oversight Congress has over the intelligence community.

Also, this week – President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union Address. The Poll Hub team discusses the post State of the Union “bounce” and what the polls taken immediately after the speech mean (and don’t mean) for the president.

And, the NFL’s biggest day of the year is Sunday! Do Americans want the Philadelphia Eagles or the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl? The results of the latest Marist Poll.

About Poll Hub

Poll Hub goes behind the science to explain how polling works, what polls really show, and what the numbers really mean. Poll Hub is produced by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, home of America’s leading independent college public opinion poll, The Marist Poll. Lee Miringoff (Director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion), Barbara Carvalho (Director of The Marist Poll) and Jay DeDapper (Director of Innovation at The Marist Poll) dig deep to give you a look at the inner workings of polls and what they tell us about our world, our country, and ourselves.

The American workforce is undergoing a profound change. According to the latest NPR/Marist Poll of the future of work, one in five American workers are contract workers. Who are they, and what kind of an impact do they have on the labor force? Poll Hub has the answers.

And, the language of polls…

Survey questions are a sign of the times. In this segment, the Poll Hub team looks back on questions dating back more than half a century and discusses how their phrasing has evolved over time. On the table are questions about race relations, interracial marriage, and a woman’s place in the workplace.