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Democracy the Winner in New Hampshire

The most surprising news from the New Hampshire primary may have been how wrong the opinion-poll predictions were. Most gave Democrat Barrack Obama double-digit leads going into Tuesday’s voting. But Hillary Clinton won. Though the polls were right about the Republican contest, pundits were stunned. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called for an inquiry on polling methodology. A colleague said that in future we should put more trust in the American people and wait for the voters to decide. Matthews said, “But then what will we do?”

Slate.com asked what would happen if polling were banned. Its answer—more attention would have to be paid to results.

There are questions about how polling and its uses affect our democracy. Does forecasting outcomes take away from the excitement of politics? Give the public the impression that elections are a done deal and individual votes don’t matter?

Diana Mutz, a University of Pennsylvania expert in political communication, says politics has lost a sense of suspense and that regaining it would do a lot to rebuild interest. View our interview with Professor Mutz.