ABSTRACT
The most famous of statistical blunders was the unanimous declaration by the major polling organizations that Dewey was set to beat Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Truman’s waving of the Chicago Tribune’s DEWEY WINS! headline shamed the pollsters. That wake-up call led to an examination of surveying techniques. Today polls consistently, accurately predict the outcome of presidential elections, sampling as few as 1 out of every 20,000 voters.
