Graphical Visualization of Polling Results

This chapter argues that it is wasteful to do a large, expensive poll and then just report a few percentages. Statistical modeling allows researchers to make the most effective use of available data, and graphs make it possible to convey more information more directly, both to general audiences and to specialists. Graphs are an invaluable tool at each step of the modeling process: exploring raw data, building and refining the model, and understanding and communicating the results are all made easier with graphs. In addition, graphical methods can be useful to survey researchers to understand weighting and other aspects of survey construction and analysis. The chapter includes several examples.