Reply #39: DO NOT take the Gallup name seriously...here's why.... [View All]

[Gloria]

Once upon a time, old George Gallup started calling the presidential races and was very accurate. As he got older and didn't really run the day to day operations any longer, a couple of guys would alternate the Presidency...when I worked there, it was Andy Kohut and Leonard Wood. This was about 20 years ago!!
Andy left Gallup and has headed PEW Research for years now. (You will still seem him on PBS during the election season, doing commentary as he once did for Gallup, now for Pew.) Gallup itself was SOLD to a company from Nebrask or Kansas sometime after Andy left. There are about 3 people still in Princeton, NJ keeping up the front of the original Gallup, with the academic aura.

But the reality is, old George Gallup and Andy Kohut wouldn't be sampling like the current Gallup is sampling!! The whole point of Gallups original prestige was the accuracy of the sampling! Which is obviously not being carried on today.

So, remember that Gallup is NOT the famous Gallup of yore!! It is just another part of a big corporation. The phone banks are spread all over the nation, unlike the original Princeton based family operation...which actually did in person interviewing on a rolling basis from week to week as well as phone interviews. As a study director I was at that time able to listen to how the interviews were being done....there was a great deal of control and care back then!!