Managing the voices of the people By Daniel O'Toole

Feature Photo: MassINC Polling Group office sign (Daniel O’Toole/NEHSJC)

One of the most important elections in the history of the country has put polls and public opinion into the spotlight.

With so much misinformation floating around, MassINC Polling Group has worked to correct this issue by taking a different approach compared to other polling agencies.

Founded in 2010 under Steve Koczela, the organization’s current president, MassINC focuses its efforts and resources on Massachusetts communities in order to gain a greater understanding of residents.

By being local, it can expect certain demographics to have certain beliefs and can better detect inaccuracies in data collection based on those expectations.

“Before we get there and start serving questions, we understand the relationship that their opinion has to the rest of the state in a way that a pollster who doesn't know Massachusetts wouldn’t,” Senior Research Director Rich Parr said.

Photo: Members of the MassINC Polling Group discuss public opinion from a recent poll (Daniel O’Toole/NEHSJC)

The group often receives accusations of misinformation on polls, but criticisms typically stem from a lack of polling literacy and understanding survey results, Parr said.

“Even though people would say you got it wrong, if you look at the way these polls work, we were closer than anybody else,” Parr said. “There’s a bit of education that has to go on about how polls work and how accurate polls can be.”

In the 2016 election, MassINC predicted Hillary Clinton to win New Hampshire by one point, and the company was criticized when she didn’t. But with a margin of error of 1.5, predicting a win by one point isn’t definite, which leads to confusion.

In order to prevent cases of misinformation, MassINC has developed new methods of data collection over the last decade.

A simple online survey has quality and bias concerns from its respondents, but MassINC has implemented measures that track the speed of survey completion, answer patterns and open-ended questions for personalized responses, Parr said.

MassINC hasn’t stopped its innovations there. The polling group’s podcast, “The Horse Race,” focusing on policies and politics, uses its data alongside current events to accurately inform listeners.

Photo: Member of MassINC Polling Group works on data for its podcast, “The Horse Race” (Daniel O’Toole/NEHSJC)

Parr is eager for the beginning of the election season to test MassINC’s polling accuracy and turnout with voters.

“We can still learn from them in terms of techniques of how to check our data, how to sample properly,” he said. “What are the best ways to ensure that people will take your survey? What incentive is the right incentive to get people to respond?”

Photo: Senior Research Director Rich Parr stands by the MassINC Polling Group’s office sign (Daniel O’Toole/NEHSJC)