What does the “margin of error” mean?

FAQ Legacy blog posts Sampling Error

A good place to start is with the following three posts on the random variation inherent in all sample surveys and what a consumer can do to minimize it (each post has a link at the end connecting to the next post in the series):
Divergent Polls
More Divergent Than They Should Be?
So What Should a Junkie Do?

Also, click on this link to display short excerpts of all of the posts concerning sampling error in reverse chronological order (most recent first).

Mark Blumenthal

Mark Blumenthal is the principal at MysteryPollster, LLC. With decades of experience in polling using traditional and innovative online methods, he is uniquely positioned to advise survey researchers, progressive organizations and candidates and the public at-large on how to adapt to polling’s ongoing reinvention. He was previously head of election polling at SurveyMonkey, senior polling editor for The Huffington Post, co-founder of Pollster.com and a long-time campaign consultant who conducted and analyzed political polls and focus groups for Democratic party candidates.