Two Penn undergraduate students will get an insider’s view of the political process as they examine election and polling data at the NBC News Decision Desk on election night.

On Nov. 8, two students in the Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES) will work alongside experts who make election projections, the analysts who write up exit poll results for NBC’s broadcast journalists, and the web writers connected to NBC News and MSNBC. Students will double-check the numbers in reporters’ stories, help create graphics, and assist with other research needs.

One of those NBC analysts is John Lapinksi, associate professor of political science and director of PORES, who came to Penn in 2006.

Lapinski serves as the director of the elections unit for NBC News, which projects political race outcomes and analyzes exit polls for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo.

“PORES puts Penn into the national conversation in a significant way,” Lapinski says. “We’ll be disseminating our research for the larger public debate. It’s a way to influence things, and because of our link with NBC, no other university has this opportunity.”

Based in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, students in PORES conduct social research in the public interest, learning basic and advanced statistics, survey design and implementation, and research methods to examine public opinion data and theory. Participants take specialized courses, and receive mentoring and hands-on instruction.

John Lapinski recently guest-lectured at a Penn Lightbulb Café about polling data and how it helps to predict the outcome of the elections.

PORES fellows Alisha Chowdhury, a junior political science and economics major from New Orleans, and Jacob Gardenswartz, a junior from San Diego, Calif. who will complete both his bachelor and master’s degrees in four years through the Fels Institute of Government, were selected to staff the desk the night of Nov. 8.

During the spring 2016 semester, Chowdhury worked with PORES alongside NBC analysts to cover the presidential primaries and caucuses. She traveled back and forth from the NBC offices in New York City, where she helped to fact-check stories and graphics.

“Most of the stories written are based on exit poll data, so I would check the writer’s numbers in the election system,” she says.

While the voter turnout numbers for this year’s elections have been higher than in previous years, Chowdhury was curious to see how many individuals in her age group voted during the primaries and caucuses. She looks forward to analyzing youth and minority voter turnout during the general election.

“When I tell people what I'm doing at PORES, they’re shocked that I’m an undergraduate student working with Penn staff and faculty at NBC’s election unit,” Chowdhury says. “I feel blessed to be a part of this program. We’re fact-checking the numbers they’re putting out to millions of people.”

The night of the 2016 presidential election, Chowdhury is eager to work in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment.

“Being able to work with PORES staff at NBC on election night allows me to live and breathe that analysis,” she says. “The exit poll data provides a breadth of understanding of how Americans from all walks of life are voting.

“I am especially excited to have a bunch of stories and graphs thrown at me and having to edit them in a short time,” Chowdhury adds.

Ten PORES fellowships each year are made possible by a gift from Robert A. Fox, C’52, and Penny Grossman Fox, ED’53, through the Fox Leadership Program. The fellows are also investigating new and innovative ways to conduct public opinion research, such as analyzing social media, as well as studying policy positions and how people perceive whether government is working.