Pollster · Academic

Franklin & Marshall College Center for Opinion Research

Also published as Franklin & Marshall College.

AAPOR Transparency Initiative since March 20, 20202Research draft
Polls since 2024
5
Latest poll ended
September 20, 2026
Record vs. results, relative
D+1.5

Polls from the VoteHub polling API, used under CC BY 4.0. Each result links to the pollster's or sponsor's own release. Imported once a day; a poll VoteHub later changes keeps its earlier version on record here.

§1About

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

The Center for Opinion Research is a survey research organization at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and its poll website calls the Franklin & Marshall College Poll the Center's flagship product.3,4 Its about page says the poll began as the Keystone Poll, formally launched at Millersville University in 1992, and moved to Franklin & Marshall in 2003.4 Berwood Yost directs the Center and the poll, and the college's Center page says it also does survey work for clients in government, business, nonprofits, higher education and the media.3,4 Its August and September 2026 releases say the Center conducted the interviews by phone and online with voters sampled from Aristotle, and that those polls were supported by a gift from alumnus Brett Harwood.5,6

Kind
Academic3
Founded
19924

§2Who it works with

Why this matters: Owners, news partners and the firms behind a poll's interviews shape what gets asked, how, and what gets published.

Part of

  • Franklin & Marshall College (2003–now). The college's Center page describes the Center as a survey research organization based at Franklin & Marshall, where it moved from Millersville University in 2003.3

Led by

  • Berwood Yost (2003–now). The college's Center page says Berwood Yost has led the Center since it moved to Franklin & Marshall in 2003, and the poll's about page names him as director of the poll.3,4

§3Whom it works for

Why this matters: A firm that also works for one party's campaigns can still publish accurate polls, but readers deserve to know.

Doesn’t say whom it works for. The Center's pages read list clients in government, business, nonprofits, higher education and the media and do not say whether it works for candidates or parties.3,4

Of its 5 polls listed since the 2024 election, VoteHub flags 0 as paid for by a Democratic-aligned sponsor and 0 by a Republican-aligned sponsor7.

§4Record against results

Why this matters: The one test that doesn't depend on other polls: how close a firm's final polls came to what voters did.

From FiveThirtyEight's final public data8,9: general-election polls between a Democrat and a Republican in the last three weeks before each election, compared with the certified result. FiveThirtyEight rated each name polls were published under separately. Across all 8,957 such polls, the average miss was D+0.7, so the relative figure takes out the misses every pollster shared that year.

Error is the poll's D−R margin minus the result's; D+ means it showed Democrats doing better than they did.
Published asPollsElectionsAverage missRelative to other pollsTypical size of miss538's last rating
Franklin & Marshall College Center for Opinion Research222004–2022D+1.3D+1.55.2 pts2.4 of 3

ABC News closed FiveThirtyEight in March 2025; its data stops at the 2022 elections. 2026 results will be added once states certify them.

§5Its polls

The 5 polls of its we list, newest first.
In the fieldQuestionResultWithPaid for bySample
September 9–September 20, 2026U.S. House · 2026 PA-07Bob Brooks 45 · Ryan Mackenzie 40357 RV
September 9–September 20, 2026U.S. House · 2026 PA-10Janelle Stelson 47 · Scott Perry 44390 RV
August 17–August 23, 2026Governor · 2026 PennsylvaniaJosh Shapiro 50 · Stacy Garrity 25 · Tony Dastra 2501 RV
June 8–June 14, 2026Governor · 2026 PennsylvaniaJosh Shapiro 50 · Stacy Garrity 28546 RV
February 18–March 1, 2026Governor · 2026 PennsylvaniaJosh Shapiro 48 · Stacy Garrity 28834 RV

§6What we looked for and didn't find

  • The Center's own founding year is not given; 1992 is when its about page says the poll launched at Millersville University.
  • No current news partner was found on the pages read; search results mentioned past one-off media arrangements that were not confirmed on a primary page.
  • No outside fieldwork vendor was found; the 2026 releases say the Center conducted the interviews itself and name Aristotle only as the source of the voter sample.
  • One search for AAPOR statements, corrections, retractions and withdrawn polls found none; aggregator pages were not searched one by one.