1936 presidential election: Landon in a Landslide: The Poll That Changed Polling

1936 presidential election: Landon in a Landslide: The Poll That Changed Polling

Retrieved January 10, 2012 http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5168

The 1936 presidential election proved a decisive battle, not only in shaping the nation’s political future but for the future of opinion polling. The Literary Digest, the venerable magazine founded in 1890, had correctly predicted the outcomes of the 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, and 1932 elections by conducting polls.

These polls were a lucrative venture for the magazine: readers liked them; newspapers played them up; and each “ballot” included a subscription blank.

The 1936 postal card poll claimed to have asked one fourth of the nation’s voters which candidate they intended to vote for. In Literary Digest's October 31 issue, based on more than 2,000,000 returned post cards, it issued its prediction: Republican presidential candidate Alfred Landon would win 57 percent of the popular vote and 370 electoral votes…http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5168

[20120120 Landon in a Landslide The Poll That Changed Polling]

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