Zoom on 2024 US elections: Are opinion polls to be trusted?

The latest general opinion polls in the US presidential election, coming after the September 10 debate, show Republican candidate, Donald Trump, still trailing his Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris, with a neck-and-neck margin of error. While this no doubt gives the Democrats a little more push and strength in the nervy business of election campaigns, it goes without saying, and especially from previous voting experience in the US presidentials, that survey scores were better trusted no further than their face value. Psephology, the scientific study of election trends is a pretty tricky endeavour, and in a critical electorate like that of…