The Nation: The Poll of Polls

As part of TIME'S '72 election-year coverage, Senior Correspondent John Steele will assess the performance of professional pollsters from time to time. The New Hampshire primary was their first test. Steele's report:

EVEN expert pollsters shudder when they contemplate primary elections. The voting base is small, the electorate volatile, the reins of party discipline lax—and in 1972 the Democratic candidates many. Pollster Louis Harris, who is not gauging primaries this year, points out that polling must continue virtually up to election eve to spot possible switches in voter sentiment that can run as...

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