Quinnipiac University Polling Institute
The Quinnipiac University Poll is a public opinion polling center based at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. It surveys public opinion in Connecticut, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and nationally.[2]
Headquarters | 60 Westwoods Road Hamden, Connecticut |
---|---|
Affiliations | Quinnipiac University |
Staff | 300[1] |
Website | poll |
It is considerably larger than other academic polling centers, including the Franklin & Marshall College Poll, which only surveys Pennsylvania.[1] The organization employs about 300 interviewers, generally drawing about a quarter of its employees from political science, communications, psychology, and sociology majors, and the remainder of interviewers from those not affiliated with the university.[1] The poll has a full-time staff of ten.[1] The university does not disclose Quinnipiac University Poll's operating budget, and the poll does not accept clients or outside funding.[1] Many political pundits refer to the poll as the "Q-pac" poll. [3]
In 2007, Quinnipiac University Poll underwent construction of a new two-story building that was expected to double its available capacity to 160 calling cubicles.[1] The purpose of the capacity expansion was to allow polling multiple states at once, rectifying a problem that arose during the 2006 Connecticut Senate election where other polls were canceled to support that poll.[1]
The polling operation began informally in 1988 in conjunction with a marketing class.[4] It became formal in 1996 when the university hired a CBS News analyst to assess the data being gained.[4] It subsequently focused on the Northeastern states, gradually expanding during presidential elections to cover swing states as well.[4] The institute is funded by the university.[4] Quinnipiac University is widely known for its poll;[5] the publicity it has generated has been credited with increasing the university's enrollment.[1]
The poll has been cited by major news outlets throughout North America and Europe, including The Washington Post,[6] Fox News,[7] USA Today,[8] The New York Times,[9] CNN,[10] and Reuters.[11] Quinnipiac University Poll receives national recognition for its independent surveys of residents throughout the United States. It conducts public opinion polls on politics and public policy as a public service as well as for academic research.[1][4] Andrew S. Tanenbaum, the founder of the poll-analysis website Electoral-vote.com, compared major pollsters' performances in the 2010 midterm Senate elections and concluded that Quinnipiac was the most accurate, with a mean error of 2.0 percent.[12][13]
References
- Lieberman, Brett (April 9, 2007). "Behind the scenes at the Q-Poll". Patriot-News. Archived from the original on October 28, 2009.
- "Quinnipiac University/Poll: Contacts and Information". quinnipiac.edu. Quinnipiac University.
- "Qpac YDN".
- Lapidos, Juliet (October 16, 2008). "What's With All the "Quinnipiac University" Polls? How an obscure school in Connecticut turned into a major opinion research center". Slate.
- Weinreb, Michael (December 26, 2007). "New Quinnipiac Coach Is Expected to Build a Winner". The New York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2009.
- LaCruz, Donna (October 31, 2006). "Polls: Menendez Leads Kean in N.J. Race". Washington Post.
- "Poll: Lieberman Leads Challenger Lamont in Connecticut Senate Race". Fox News Channel. August 17, 2006.
- "Quinnipiac Poll: Giuliani still leads GOP hopefuls, but by much less". USA Today. May 21, 2010. Archived from the original on June 25, 2007. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
- Kapochunas, Rachel (July 13, 2007). "Poll Tests 'New York-New York-New York' Race in Ohio". New York Times.
- Boyette, Chris. "Poll: Majority of New Yorkers approve of NYPD surveillance of Muslims". CNN.
- Sulivan, Andy (Jun 26, 2008). "Obama leads in four battleground states: poll". Reuters.
- Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (November 9, 2010). "Analysis of the Pollsters". Electoral-vote.com. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
- "Rasmussen Polls Were Biased and Inaccurate; Quinnipiac, SurveyUSA Performed Strongly". fivethirtyeight.com. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2017.