The Washington Post is out with a new poll showing Ed Gillespie trailing the Democrats in the Virginia governor’s race, but we’re not worried, nor are we surprised.

Anyone who has followed Virginia politics for any amount of time knows that these media and university polls aren’t meant to measure election outcomes, but rather to influence them.

This won’t be the last time we see a poll with questionable results and a clear agenda of dampening Republican enthusiasm, so bookmark this page.

Here are five steps for understanding Virginia governor’s race polls:

1. Virginia is Not California

In the Washington Post’s latest poll, just 24% of those surveyed identified themselves as Republicans. Contrast this with California where 25.9% of voters are registered Republicans.

Then consider that in 2016, Hillary Clinton won California by a 30% margin, but in Virginia her lead was just 5%. You don’t have to be a pollster to know this doesn’t pass the smell test.

2. Public Polls in Virginia are Terrible At Predicting Outcomes

In 2014, Ed Gillespie came within 0.8% — just 17,723 votes — of beating Mark Warner, but just days before the election, public polls showed Ed losing by double digits.

Polling was equally as shabby in the 2013 governor’s race, where polls showed Ken Cuccinelli trailing Terry McAuliffe by high single digits when the outcome of the race was a 2.6% margin.

3. Media Companies and Universities Don’t Have the Resources to Do Polls Correctly

As FiveThirtyEight.com reports

“Pollsters, and the media companies whose dwindling budgets have left them commissioning fewer polls, have to decide where to go from here. ‘Traditional methods are not in crisis, just expensive,’ said Barbara Carvalho of Marist College, whose final poll of the race showed Clinton leading by 1 point, in line with her current lead. ‘Few want to pay for scientific polling.’”

Unfortunately, rather than conducting polls that are scientific and use the latest methods, some media outlets and academic institutions release poorly executed polls simply for the attention. This does real damage to how voters think and feel about elections.

And isn’t it funny how they always seem to get it wrong in the same direction…against the conservative candidate in the race.

4. Registered voters are different than likely voters

Polls that only survey registered voters are only doing half of the job. Always make sure that a poll at least tries to identify likely voters — those who actually plan to vote.

5. It’s harder than ever to predict who will actually turn out and vote

Every election is different and when you’re cutting corners on resources, it’s harder to understand what motivates someone to vote. Some polls will simply ask a voter if they’re likely to vote, rather than using data science and modeling to find likely voters.

In its post-mortem of 2016’s polling failures, NPR offers these insights from experts:

“Way too many people tell you they’re going to vote,” Deane said. … “We know polls do a poor job with emotion/enthusiasm/commitment,” Evans Witt, head of Princeton Survey Research and president of the National Council on Public Polls

So the next time you see the media covering one of their own polls, take a deep breath and don’t be discouraged from working hard to make Ed Gillespie our next governor.