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Warren J. Mitofsky (September 17, 1934 – September 1, 2006) was an American political pollster.
Mitofsky graduated in 1957 fromGuilford College and was executive director of theCBS News election and survey unit from 1967 to 1990. He also previously served as an executive producer of CBS election night broadcasts.
Prior to CBS, Mitofsky worked with theCensus Bureau where he designed a number of surveys. Along withJoseph Waksberg, Mitofsky is credited with developing an efficient method of sampling telephone numbers usingrandom digit dialing, which has since been widely adopted as a sampling method. In 1999, theAmerican Association for Public Opinion Research presented him with its lifetime achievement award for his "continuing concern for survey quality".
Mitofsky is credited with having invented theexit poll.[1]
Warren Mitofsky is listed among the United States Census Bureau's Notable Alumni[2] In 1989 he was elected as aFellow of the American Statistical Association.[3]
In November 2004, Mitofsky was interviewed byPBSNewsHour regarding what went wrong with the accuracy of his exit polls for the2004 U.S. presidential election. Early poll results were leaked which showedJohn Kerry leadingGeorge W. Bush, conflicting with the final official outcome. Mitofsky said he suspected that the difference arose because "the Kerry voters were more anxious to participate in our exit polls than the Bush voters." He refused, consistently, to release precinct-level polling data from Ohio to researchers who maintained that the election results were fraudulent, and his own exit polls were a more accurate picture of the vote.[citation needed]
He died on September 1, 2006, inNew York City of anaortic aneurysm, aged 71.[4]
TheRoper Center for Public Opinion Research awards an annual Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research.[5]
In 1993 Mitofsky foundedMitofsky International, a survey research company. Its primary business is conductingexit polls for majorelections around the world. It does this work exclusively for news organizations. Mitofsky has directed exit polls and quick counts since 1967 for almost 3,000 electoral contests. He has the distinction of conducting the first national presidential exit polls in theUnited States,Russia,Mexico and thePhilippines.[citation needed]
Along with CESSI, Ltd., Mitofsky International were the only exit polls for the Russian presidential elections in 1996 and 2000 as well as all other Russian elections since 1993. It was the only provider of exit polling and quick counts reported by the Mexican broadcast industry for its 1994 presidential election.
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