Chief pollster for Olney-based firm sweats the details to put light

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Feb 10, 2006 by Joe Bacchus

A political news story might attach the attribution according to Research 2000 to the end of a string of poll results.It sounds authoritative, official - and it is. But it also is essentially one man.Delair Ali is the founder, chief pollster and spokesman for the Olney-based polling firm. Research 2000 makes its money in market research, but makes its reputation in political and issue polling, Ali said.The firm polls on all levels of the political world, from presidential races to gubernatorial races.

Research 2000 even polled for the Spokesman-Review on the possibility of a recall election when Spokane, Wash., Mayor Jim West was caught in a sex scandal last year.Ali said too many polling firms take the expert aspect of their titles too far, letting it get to their heads and not taking the time to actually figure out exactly what their client is seeking. He said even though he does have the expertise in how to conduct a poll and what makes a poll question good or bad, it is the clients who know the issues and precisely what information they need.I want to hear what they have to say, he said.Ali founded Research 2000 in late 1998 after leaving Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. He said in his time as a senior vice president he helped expand the firm's presence from just over a dozen states to all 50.Research 2000, with Ali and its three part-time employees, is quite a bit smaller, but still makes its presence known. During the run-up to an election the firm could be conducting polls in as many as 40 states for approximately 200 clients, he said.Among Research 2000's stable of clients are the Bergen Record in New Jersey, The Raleigh News & Observer and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The firm also does non- news polling work for organizations such as the National Right to Work Committee and Gun Owners of America.Ali said diversification - working with interest groups as well as media - is important for business, and that there is a misconception surrounding polling contracts with large news agencies.We don't make a great deal of money, Ali said. If I were to depend on making ends meet with media polls, then I'd be broke.Ali said while he and his core team meet with clients and form the polling questions, the actual legwork is farmed out to professional call banks. He said it is important to know your polling partners because only a handful of small mistakes can lead to a major foul-up in the final numbers.Research 2000 has had maybe five cases in its seven years of existence where data was messed up beyond repair, Ali said. He said in those cases - After I rant, rave and yell - he tells the client that he can either give them a refund or try to redo the poll.Also, if he sees something that just doesn't jive with his expectations and experiences, he knows to go back to his client and ask if anything significant happened recently, perhaps during the polling window.For instance, if he is conducting a three-day poll to determine which of two mayoral candidates will be elected, and in day two, one of the candidates is arrested for drug possession, then clearly the responses after the arrest will differ from those before. The goal is to show what is actually happening.You try to be a perfectionist, Ali said.And one of the ways to be as perfect as possible is to know your limitations, he said. For instance, you have to be able to look at a potential contract and say no if you feel it doesn't match your services. Or your tolerance level for frustration.I won't touch an exit poll for less than six figures, Ali said. It's thankless.For all the abuse polling takes, exit polling takes the most, he said. The production is so large and spread out that Ali said he would not do one unless he had total control of the endeavor, using his own pollsters so that he knows for certain - or as certain as he can be - that they will be in the right precincts at the right times. He said there have been instances in which major precincts were unpolled, making the data essentially useless.If that happens, you're basically screwed, Ali said.Ali points to the disaster that was the 2000 presidential race to make his point. That was the night when networks called Florida for then-Gov. George W. Bush, then for Vice President Al Gore - then admitted they really didn't know what was going on.Ali said exit polling got a bad rap in the 2000 fiasco because exit polls assume every ballot cast will count as the voter meant it to count. He said there was no way for pollsters to know whether a voter punched the hole for the wrong candidate or if the voter failed to complete the ballot properly. Nonetheless, it was the pollsters who took a beating in the aftermath.So he knows his limits. And he knows what will frustrate him to no end. And he would definitely pass on an exit poll contract. Well, probably.If someone's going to pay me a million bucks, Ali said.