What even is polling? According to the Pew Research Center, polling is really just survey research that "focuses on people’s issue preferences, engagement in the election, opinions about the candidates, views of the campaign and (other) voter preferences" (source). News outlets and other media sources use polling during an election year to forecast election outcomes, among other things. Join our panel of experts moderated by CNN political correspondent, Sara Murray '07, to learn more about what polling is and how to decipher what different polls actually mean.

Panelists include:

• Chris Antoun - iSchool and Joint Program in Survey Methodology faculty member and researcher focused on using smartphones to collect population data, either through text messaging, mobile questionnaires, or apps and sensors
• Chris Frates '02 - Host, SiriusXM's Politics Inside Out and former investigative correspondent at CNN
• Emily Guskin '06 - Polling Analyst, The Washington Post
• Mike Hanmer - Government and Politics faculty member and director of the Center of Democracy and Civic Engagement and co-director of the Washington Post-UMD poll 

This event is part of the UMDemocracy event series covering things to know before the November election. Click here to see our other UMDemocracy events.