Stop the presses! Shown is the newly reelected President Harry Truman, with a newspaper headline announcing— erroneously—that he had lost. How could the newspaper have made such a mistake? They failed to use random sampling. Researchers polled voters by calling them on the phone. But, in 1948, not everyone had a phone, and Truman supporters were less likely to own phones than were supporters of his opponent. The poll’s sample, then, was not representative of the population, and the unrepresentative sample incorrectly predicted the election outcome.