CBS News & NY Times Launch 'Battleground Tracker' to Study Public Opinion

"Battleground Tracker," a collaboration between CBS News and The New York Times, debuted on Sunday, July 27, on CBS News' Face The Nation WITH BOB SCHIEFFER. Battleground Tracker will study public opinion during the midterm elections in Congressional districts and states with Senate races, based on a panel of more than 100,000 people nationwide. The online surveys will be conducted by YouGov, the global online polling company, exclusively for this project. All the findings and added analysis will appear on NYTimes.com/Upshot and CBSNews.com, with new results being unveiled monthly through November.

CBS News' Face The Nation Moderator and Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer says, "We're thrilled to be part of this new joint project, and think Battleground Tracker will provide our viewers with a great snapshot on how these crucial 2014 elections are shaping up."

The data is analyzed by CBS News Director of Elections Anthony Salvanto and members of The Upshot team at The New York Times, including David Leonhardt, the group's editor. "We aim to take this unprecedented amount of original data, and then track what's going on in the midterms, what would happen in every race if the election were today," said Salvanto.

"The midterm elections will help shape the country's politics for the next few years, and people are eager to know more about them," Leonhardt said. "This enormous panel adds substantially to our understanding of the state of the campaign." He added that the results had been incorporated into The Upshot's forecasting model for control of the Senate, which includes information from a wide variety of sources to analyze the campaign.

The first Battleground Tracker results will be announced at 10:30 AM, ET on Sunday, July 27 on FACE THE NATION, CBSNews.com and NYTimes.com/Upshot.

About CBS News' FACE THE NATION

FACE THE NATION is broadcast on Sundays at 10:30 AM, ET (check local listings) on the CBS Television Network. Mary Hager is the Executive Producer. Face The Nation is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, now celebrating its 60th year on air. It premiered on CBS on Nov. 7, 1954. The program broadcasts from Washington, D.C., where Schieffer has spent more than 40 years covering government and politics. He has anchored Face The Nation since 1991. Guests include government leaders, politicians and global figures in the news.

About The New York Times

The New York Times is one of the world's most influential news organizations with numerous news bureaus around the New York region, the nation and the globe. The Times is known for accuracy, depth and authority and produces award-winning journalism, breaking news coverage and opinion and commentary along with deep databases of content and rich multimedia presentations. The Times has won 114 Pulitzer Prizes and Citations, far more than any other news organization. Follow The Times on Twitter at @NYTimes.