A poll aggregator is an entity that tracks and aggregates individual polls conducted by different organizations in order to gauge public sentiment on key civic issues such as the approval rating of a major political figure (e.g., president, prime minister, monarch, governor, lawmaker, etc.
), or legislative body; or to measure likely public support for an individual candidate or political party in an upcoming election.
According to the American Association for Public Opinion Research, "[o]ther aggregators use regression-based analyses — a method for adjusting data to account for unusual results ('outliers').
[10][11] Since 2010, the political blog Talking Points Memo has also sponsored a "PollTracker" feature which aggregates opinion polls.
[12] Other noteworthy examples include Drew Linzer's Votamatic,[13] Josh Putnam's Frontloading HQ,[14] and Jay DeSart and Tom Holbrook's Politics by the Numbers.