Polling Through the Ages: A Journey of Evolution

How were the earliest polls conducted? When did this take place?

a) Through online surveys in the 19th century
b) Face-to-face interviews in the 20th century
c) Telephone interviews in the 21st century
d) They were never conducted in the past
Final answer:

The Evolution of Polling: From Face-to-Face to Modern Methods

The earliest polls were conducted with face-to-face interviews in the 19th century through informal straw polls.

How early polls were conducted traces back to the first opinion poll in 1824, where voters were asked about their choices as they left their polling places. These early efforts were known as straw polls, which were informal and involved asking non-random groups of people. The earliest polls were not conducted through online surveys, telephone interviews, or never at all in the past, but rather through face-to-face interviews in the 19th century.

Over time, technology and polling have evolved, where now most polling is done by phone or internet. However, face-to-face methods like exit polls remain pertinent. Despite the evolution, modern methods face challenges such as ensuring a representative sample and avoiding multiple responses by the same individual in online polls.