An entrance poll is a

poll Poll, polled, or polling may refer to: Figurative head counts * Poll, a formal election ** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts ** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions ** Polling places o ...

that is taken before voters have cast their

vote Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an Constituency, electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision making, decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election camp ...

s at the

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English and British English, although polling place is the building

s. They are mainly used in caucuses. It is akin to an

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

in the sense that it asks who the voter plans to vote for or some similar set of questions. The possibility that the prospective voter might change his mind after the poll is very small compared to that of an opinion poll, therefore the

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the en ...

of an entrance poll is expected to be lower than that of an opinion poll. However, the

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

of conducting an entrance poll is closer to that of an

exit poll An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters – usually private companies working for ...

, where actual voters are being queried as opposed to potential voters in an opinion poll.

Estimates {{otheruses, Estimate (disambiguation) In the Westminster system of government, the ''Estimates'' are an outline of government spending for the following fiscal year presented by the cabinet to parliament. The Estimates are drawn up by bureaucrat ...

provided by entrance polls can be obtained more quickly than those of exit polls because the people can be questioned earlier. However, they are also possibly subject to a higher margin of error as early voters are given a higher preference than in exit polls. Furthermore, entrance polls are based upon a future event, meaning there is always the possibility that a voter may change his or her mind between being asked questions for an entrance poll and then actually voting.

References

Elections Types of polling {{Election-stub