Elliott Morris is a data-driven journalist and author living in Washington, DC.
Elliott is the author of STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them, a book about public opinion polling and democracy which was published in 2022 by W. W. Norton. Read more about the book or buy it now!.
Elliott was most recently the Editorial Director of Data Analytics at ABC News, where he developed polling aggregation and election-forecasting models and managed the research and data visualization teams for ABC’s data-journalism website FiveThirtyEight/538. He was a regular guest on the network’s broadcast and streaming news programs providing political analysis on notable events and upcoming elections.
Elliott writes a regular blog/newsletter about politics, polling, and elections through the lens of data and statistical analysis, and posts on various social media websites including Twitter/X and Bluesky. Subscribe to the newsletter!
From 2018 to 2023 Elliot was a Senior Data Journalist and US Correspondent for The Economist, where he covered American politics, public opinion polling, demographics, and elections — among other topics. Elliott was the lead developer of the paper’s election forecasting models, including for US presidential elections and several European countries. From 2020 to 2023 Elliott also wrote a weekly data column for the paper’s “Checks and Balance” newsletter on US politics.
Elliott has given guest lectures on polling and election forecasting at universities including MIT, Harvard, George Washington University and the University of Texas at Austin (his alma mater). He is also a frequent round-table guest and keynote speaker and has delivered addresses to clients ranging from academic institutions and data journalism organizations to major firms and Fortune 500 companies, both foreign and domestic.
Book
Strength In Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them (W.W. Norton, July 2022)
“Polls are the ultimate democratic process; they are used by leaders, activists and special interest groups to advocate for certain policies and the attitudes of the populace. But polls can also go wrong. They are vulnerable to methodological flukes and outright fabrication, and they can be used by despots and demagogues to damage government and discourage citizens – or worse.
In Strength in Numbers, readers will learn how polls work — the political philosophy behind their emergence, the ways in which they first measured the public’s pulse, how those methods have changed over time, and how they might change in the future. Along the way, Morris illuminates how public opinion polls provide a voice for citizens and influence such crucial matters as a party’s selection of presidential candidates, he guides readers through a vibrant history of polling to provide insider context, and he demonstrates how we have underestimated their potential impact. He also candidly acknowledges where polls have fallen short and charts a path for the industry’s future where it can truly work for the people.” Read more…
Media and Speaking
Elliott often speaks at events in his capacity as a data-driven journalist, expert in public opinion polling, professional forecaster, and data scientist. He has given lectures to academic audiences, delivered keynote addresses at corporate retreats for Fortune 500 companies, participated in panels at academic conferences, and appeared as a guest on television, radio, and podcasts.
To book a speaking engagement or media, podcast or other appearance, please email Elliott at MEDIA[AT]gelliottmorris.com, or fill out the contact form:
Contact
Work
Articles + code
How 538’s polling averages work • How Our Polling Averages Work
What Do Swing Voters Think? Meet @American__Voter • New York Times Opinion
Forecasting the (2020) US elections • The Economist
We sorted American voters into 380,000 distinct groups • The Economist
Who is winning the race for Westminster? • The Economist
When to pay attention to 2020 forecasts • The Economist
If everyone had voted, Hillary Clinton would probably be president • The Economist
Should political parties really let anyone run for president? • The Economist
The failure of gerrymandering • The Economist
Two Ways of Thinking about Election Predictions and What They Tell Us About 2018 • The University of Virginia Center for Politics
How Much Can the Youth Vote Actually Help Democrats? • The New York Times Upshot
You can find all of my published articles here,
Just code
I am an experienced programmer in R, Python, and Stan, a program for Bayesian statistics. I specialize in traditional statistical data analysis, survey research, several plotting libraries and automatic report generating as well as predictive analytics, machine learning models, production data science pipelines and forecasting.
You can find more at my GitHub page,