
Our first-class faculty bring their expertise into classrooms, enriching student learning experiences with real-world insights and knowledge.
As an exit poll analyst with The Washington Post during the 2024 presidential election, Political Science Prof. Alauna Safarpour provided the American people valuable insight into the results, highlighting the most impactful factors that helped determine the next president of the United States. Safarpour brings that same expertise and knowledge into the classroom at Gettysburg College, guiding students through empirical data, statistics, and the scientific method to understand the opinions and actions of the American people.
In her role at The Post, Safarpour reviewed voting results in real time and analyzed the information to determine trends related to various factors, including which socio-demographic groups supported which candidate and the issues that mattered to voters. Safarpour has been assisting The Washington Post with polling the American public since 2020 when she was a public opinion fellow as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland. She worked the presidential election that year, as well as the 2022 midterms and last fall’s presidential race.
“The atmosphere is very exciting,” Safarpour said. “We begin to see results come in for the exit polls starting at 5 p.m., and then work as quickly as possible to analyze, check our results, and ensure that we get accurate information out to the American public as rapidly as we can.”

Safarpour and her fellow analysts critically examine data attained through exit poll surveys of voters before disseminating their findings to journalists reporting on the election. The process involves constant reviewal and edits to ensure accurate data, unbiased results, and journalistic integrity.
“As our department emphasizes to our students, political science is science; it is not punditry or opinion,” Safarpour noted. “For pollsters and political scientists specializing in public opinion, this is even more important. Our job is to collect and objectively disseminate information on the opinions of the American people. We may have personal views on candidates, parties, and policies, but those personal views are ultimately irrelevant to our jobs.”
Through the Gettysburg Approach, Safarpour has found multiple avenues to share her unique knowledge and skills with the campus community. She infuses her curriculum with the data and experience from her work as a polling analyst, putting her students on the doorstep to understanding the attitudes and behaviors found within the people participating in the electoral voting system. Following last fall’s presidential election, Safarpour joined her political science colleagues for a presentation about the outcome in late November. This spring, she has also arranged to have The Washington Post’s polling team speak with her students.

“Because of my relationship with The Post, I have access to the best source of data to understand the results of the 2024 election immediately, and therefore can provide our Gettysburg community with expert commentary and insight using data that few others nationwide have access to,” Safarpour said.
Empowered by faculty like Safarpour, Gettysburg students rose to the occasion amidst the election tumult last fall. In the days leading up to the 2024 presidential election, the student leaders of the College Democrats and College Republicans issued a joint statement condemning political violence and pledging to accept the results of the election regardless of the winner. The two organizations also hosted a bipartisan election night watch party and co-hosted a Get Out the Vote event with the Political Science Department and Pi Sigma Alpha.
“It is wonderful to see the future leaders of America—our students—model the ideals of civic discourse and patriotic cooperation through their actions,” Safarpour said. “Political pundits and politicians currently in office would do well to follow the example set by Gettysburg College students.”
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By Corey Jewart
Photos courtesy of Alauna Safarpour, Miranda Harple
Posted: 01/27/25