# Internal Polls--what are they, and how are they used?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internal-polls-what-are-they-and-how-are-they-used/922820
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [October 12, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internal-polls-what-are-they-and-how-are-they-used/922820 "2020-10-12T17:59:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 11

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### Author: ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internal-polls-what-are-they-and-how-are-they-used/922820/11 "2020-10-12T20:57:37Z")

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> [@chappachula](#):
>
> Let’s take as an example: the last election when Hillary lost, despite all the polls saying that it was unlikely.

Depends on your definition of unlikely. 538’s final weighted poll gave Trump a 29% chance of winning, which is distinctly non-zero.

As for internal polling, i’ve seen a third type in which former political consultants build a brand new polling group, and then develop polling results highly favorable to a preferred candidate. Typically they have indeed taken some kind of poll, either Internet or phone, but then used suspicious weightings or undersampled.

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