How To Read Polls #296 B y Hank Silverberg I was doing my usual search through social media earlier this week when a new poll in the presidential race was released. It was done by Marquette University Law School, and for the first time it showed Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump among likely voters 53% to 47%. That got some Trump supporters all in a tizzy, claiming that the media is manipulating the polls, they don't count and it was all fake. It was a good reminder that all the polls are not the same, and that the public often doesn't understand the different methodology. There are various types of polls. Some, like the Marquette poll, or the ones done by highly respected Marist College, are independent. They have no agenda and use standard non-partisan methodology to create a statistical picture of a particular political contest, issue or candidate at that particular point in time. They are a snapshot of