She says the most serious problem with polling agencies is small sample sizes.
"It is inadequate to say that a small group of citizens can represent the views of the entire population," she says.
What she calls inaccurate polling gives a false impression of dramatic shifts, she says, whereas the voting population is actually relatively stable.
Bender says that today's polls do not accurately reflect the state of mind of the voting public.
"It is a misstatement to say that the volatile polls show that the public itself is that volatile," he says.
But Gallup's Newport defends his profession, saying the volatility is not generated by the polls but by the voters.
"I think the polls do reflect what's going on; we design the polls to do this," he says. "There is a lot of short-term volatility in response to recent events, like debates and speeches."
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