On Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform welcomed Maurice “Mickey” Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, who delivered a lecture on “Why Polling is Important.” Watch the complete video:
Mickey Carroll brings more than 40 years of experience as a political writer and columnist for New York and New Jersey newspapers. He is the chief spokesman for Quinnipiac’s New York State, New York City and New Jersey polls, and works with Quinnipiac poll director Douglas Schwartz to develop, analyze and present the results of the many polls conducted by Quinnipiac.
Carroll’s experience as a journalist includes work with the New York Times, Newsday, the New York Post, the Passaic Herald-News, the Jersey Journal and the Newark Star-Ledger. Carroll taught journalism at Columbia University, New York University and Montclair State College; he presently teaches in Quinnipiac’s mass communications program. He has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Notre Dame.
Frequently cited by journalists, public officials and researchers, the independent Quinnipiac University Poll regularly surveys residents in Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and nationwide about political races, state and national elections, and issues of public concern, such as schools, taxes, transportation, municipal services and the environment.
Known for its exactness and thoroughness, the Quinnipiac poll is featured regularly in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and on national network news broadcasts. In 2010, respected public opinion polling analyst Nate Silver ranked the Quinnipiac University poll as most accurate among major polls conducting surveys in two states or more. The Quinnipiac poll was also selected a “winner” by the New York Post for the most accurate prediction on the Schumer-D’Amato Senate race in 1998.
Student interviewers use a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system to collect data from statewide and national residents. For a typical public opinion survey, a randomly selected sample of about 1,000 registered voters age 18 and over is interviewed over five or six days. The polls are conducted at the Polling Institute on West Woods Road, close to the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses.
