At 24, Tom Jensen is probably the youngest pollster in North Carolina.

The lead analyst for Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm in Raleigh, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a dual degree in history and political science in 2006.

Since November, he's written the questions, set up the auto-dialer and poured over the results of polls in North Carolina and other states.

Although his background is in politics, Jensen says he's always been a numbers geek, pouring over the precinct results for campaigns. His senior thesis was a regression analysis comparing black and white candidates in 16 states from 2001 to 2004.

He's assisted in the analysis by Jim Shields, a retired political science professor and former head of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, but otherwise works alone.

That keeps costs down, allowing the firm to charge candidates from $1,500 to $2,500.

"We wanted to show that you don't have to spend a ton of money to get good polling," he told Dome.