Presidential Polls: Three Sites to Monitor Your Candidate's Rating During the Election

As the 2008 presidential election heats up, much is made in the media of presidential polls. One hears the names Rasmussen, Zogby and Gallup tossed about in commentary by television reporters. Presidential polls are held on a near daily basis of late and approval ratings could give an edge to projecting which presidential candidates will emerge as the victors in November. Voters do not need to wait for the news to report on ratings, however. Presidential Polling information is available on the Internet for interested voters. Below are three presidential polling giants who provide much of the polling information to the media.

Rasmussen Reports: Rasmussen Reports offers up-to-date presidential polling information on their site. The information provided on the site includes a polling history back through June and show an edge for Barack Obama, currently reporting that McCain trails Obama by 4%, leaving the candidates locked at 47%/43%. The polling is done via nightly telephone interviews with prospective voters and includes figures that include results with leaners and non-leaners. The polls are released at 9:30 A.M. each day and interested politics watchers can subscribe to receive the latest poll results via email through a link on the Rasmussen Report site.

Gallup Poll: Gallup Poll also offers daily tracking of presidential polling and has Obama leading currently at 49% to McCain's 43%. The polls are done on a 3-day rolling average (like the Rasmussen Reports polls) and Gallup interviews no less than 1,000 voters for each poll. Gallup even goes so far to provide results that break down support for each candidate by demographics related to age, which shows Obama clearly has an advantage with the 18-24 demographic. Other data is available on site, including support for candidates via ethnic group, region of the country, and gender. Gallup also offers politicos the option to subscribe to receive poll results via email, as well as RSS feed.