A popular magazine that began presidential public opinion polls in 1916 One of the first public opinion polls in the US Was hailed as “amazing right” and “uncannily accurate”
Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues and policies Used to predict popular vote in presidential elections
A subset of the whole population selected for the purpose of predicting or gauging opinion Oversampled from the upper middle class and the wealthy so it wasn’t fair
Its important to phrase a question properly or it could result in a different answer. Responses to highly emotional issues such as abortion, same sex marriage, and affirmative action are often skewed depending on the wording of a particular question.
Random- gives each voter the same chance at being selected Stratified- the population is divided into subpopulations and random samples are taken from each
Telephone polls are the most frequently used to contact people Television stations ask people to call in Most common form of telephone polls is random digit dialing surveys In-person interview are conducted by some groups