St. Norbert College Election Poll Ranks High in National Listing

The St. Norbert College/Wisconsin Public Radio election poll has earned a high ranking on the well-regarded statistical-analysis blog FiveThirtyEight, created by analyst Nate Silver.

The poll is ranked 11th out of 85 academic polling organizations evaluated by the blog, which recently released its rankings of pollsters across the nation. St. Norbert’s is the number-one poll from Wisconsin on the listing, followed by those from Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The poll, part of a long partnership between the college and Wisconsin Public Radio, is ranked 31st out of the 337 national polling organizations evaluated by the blog.

David Wegge, executive director of the Strategic Research Institute at St. Norbert College, says: “We are very pleased to receive high rankings. We have a long and successful track record of polling in Wisconsin that goes back to 1984. The key to accuracy in pre-election polling comes in the methodological procedures that are utilized. For years we have carefully followed some very strict methodological procedures that give us a high level of accuracy.”

FiveThirtyEight – which takes its name from the number of electors in the United States Electoral College – is a blog dedicated to polling aggregation and statistical analysis. It examines and interprets data on various topics related to politics, economics, sports and science. Currently owned by ESPN and featured on The New York Times’ website, FiveThirtyEight gained widespread recognition, in part due to its accurate predictions of election outcomes.


Dec. 2, 2014