AmericaThinks takes a big step forward in solving polling issues and making public opinion polling reliable, free, and available to all registered voters. This overview will focus on the big picture of AmericaThinks public opinion polling and how we plan to conduct these polls.

Volumes have been written about the details of public opinion polling and how it is accomplished. Trying to explain public opinion polling is a bit tricky because public opinion polling is part science and part art. This overview will focus on the big picture of traditional public opinion polling.

While AmericaThinks believes in and is actively developing a new model of public opinion polling, we value the foundations and contributions of the past as vital to our success in the present. There is no need to tear down the past while building for the future. So we went back to the beginning, seeking to understand the mindsets, purposes, and approaches of those who built this industry.

The mission of AmericaThinks is to help every American voter be seen for who they are and heard for what they believe. AmericaThinks is the ideal of representative democracy writ large. Never before has this even been a possibility. Today, for the first time, the dream of public opinion polling for everyone is possible.

How do we ask good polling questions? How do we ask non-partisan polling questions? Since AmericaThinks is the messenger – not the message – it is especially important that we commit to fair and balanced polls. As are many things in life, there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.

What kinds of questions will be asked by AmericaThinks? How do we ask good non-biased non-partisan polling questions? It can be harder than it appears.

Something happened in the Fall of 2017 that I did not expect. Before then, I had been dedicated to transitioning my PDF software business into a next generation of data and document services. Life was busy and I had been working on developing and building next generation compute and data storage hardware as a basis for document services. Then in the fall of 2017, a series of seemingly unrelated events, technology, and previous experiences converged to open the door to a whole new opportunity for authenticated information collection.