The reality, importance, and pitfalls of election polls with Steve Mossop

This episode of Now that’s significant, a Market Research Podcast sees host, Michael Howard, the head of marketing at Infotools, speak to Steve Mossop, Executive Vice President of Leger Vancouver. Before this, Steve was president of Insights West who Leger acquired in late 2021, and prior to this, Steve was at Ipsos for 17 years managing 30+ client service staff in multiple cities after starting his career at the Angus Reid Group and TNS in earlier years. And what might give away what we’re going to be talking about today, Steve has, impressively, correctly predicted the outcomes of over 25 elections over his career.  In this episode, we discuss the crucial role of election polls, and notably, how they're actually far more accurate than many realize. We hear how Steve got into polling and some lessons he's learned along the way. Steve shares the role of polls and how they can be used to help gauge public opinion, and also encourage others to vote. We discussed how one of the best indicators of whether or not someone will vote is if they know the election day date. We talked about how the main pollsters got it so wrong in the USA over the past two elections. Steve shares how important it is to know your sample in order to minimize fraud and maximize the most realistic projections. We hope you enjoy the episode. Regards, Michael and the team at Infotools.