Many Ohio polls show the state is leaning blue ahead of the November midterm election, but trust can vary among voters who have seen polling fail before.
Polls can change minute to minute, because people are unpredictable, said Robert Alexander, political science professor at Bowling Green State University.
"All polls are really snapshots in time. And even as we talk right now, there's a lot of noise around some political advertising around the Acton-Ramaswamy campaigns," Alexander said. "And then that might change things in a moment in time, and then things could get stable again a week from now."
Alexander was referring to Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign released a controversial political ad that has swung many state polls in opponent Dr. Amy Acton's favor.
"We're dealing with human beings," Alexander added. "And if there's one thing we know about human beings, they're imprecise. They change their minds on lots of things."
But while people can be inconsistent, partisanship has been a stable driver of attitudes and election participation in the last several years, he noted.
Alexander also said the types of issues people are fired up about can change whether they go to the polls.
"Today we've got a war in Iran and historically high gas and diesel prices," he said. "So what will stimulate people to turn out to vote or have them stay home is going to differ from election to election. So this is where the polling can be imprecise, is in the modeling of who's going to show up."
He also said it's important to consider the margin of error. He suggested looking at the average of multiple polls rather than focusing on one.
"Don't look at any specific poll and say that that is the answer," he explained. "And so you kind of have to take a look at where the aggregate of the polls are."
Polling can be difficult because opinions are constantly shifting with new information, he said, adding it's also important to consider who's conducting a poll, and whether they might benefit from the results.
