POLL surveys have been ubiquitous features in the electoral landscape after the first was introduced during the 1824 US presidential race among Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William Crawford and Henry Clay. The survey which was conducted by the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian showed Jackson leading Adams. While Jackson won a slim popular vote, the US House of Representatives, pursuant to the US Federal Constitution, voted Adams as the 6th President of the United States because not one of the contenders got an overall majority in the Electoral College.

Much later, American George Gallup made empirical innovations on what was then known as "straw polls." He created a more scientific methodology by, among others, "sampling a randomly selected, statistically average group of people." He also used trained interviewers. Today's pollsters generally follow Gallup's methodology.

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