The Wrong Guy Won

In 1936, Literary Digest predicted Republican Alf Landon would win the U.S. presidential election against Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, their survey was flawed due to a biased sample, as it was drawn from magazine subscribers and telephone owners, who were predominantly wealthy and Republican-leaning. This led to an inaccurate prediction, as Roosevelt won by a landslide. The error highlighted the importance of proper sampling methods in surveys.

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