The "worst polls in decades" call key assumptions of surveying, and forecasting, into question

The politicization of public opinion surveys has hurt their ability to reach a representative portrait of Americans. But surveys are still useful, despite critics' claims.

The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) just released its quadrennial analysis of what went wrong in the polls during last election. “The 2020 polls featured polling error of an unusual magnitude,” the commission responsible for the report wrote:

It was the highest [error] in 40 years for the national popular vote and the highest in…