Internet Versus Conventional Polls in the General Election

Abstract

Britain’s pollsters went some way to rehabilitating themselves in the 2005 General Election. Every poll published on the morning of 5 May was correct to within 2 percentage points for Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. After the horrors of 1992 (when not a single poll in election week came anywhere near the final result), and the less-than-perfect polling performances in 1997 and 2001 (when most surveys still overstated Labour support and understated the Conservatives), the outcome of the 2005 election was met by Britain’s pollsters with understandable relief.