1. C1, L2, S1 Political Polls in New Zealand Dru Rose

2. C1, L2, S2 There are 6 main poll companies: One News Colmar Brunton Herald DigiPoll 3 News Reid Research Herald on Sunday Key Research Roy Morgan Horizon Dru Rose

3. C1, L2, S3 Colmar Brunton, DigiPoll, Reid, Key and Roy Morgan use CATI Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing Dru Rose

4. C1, L2, S4 and RDD (Random Digit Dialling ) Computer software randomly rings a household with a landline telephone. The interviewer asks to speak to the adult with the most recent birthday. If that person is not at home, the CATI software usually programmes several re-calls over a 4-day period in an attempt to contact them. Dru Rose

5. C1, L2, S5 Some form of Stratified Sampling is used which samples Geographic regions Rural/urban Gender Age Income distribution Ethnicity in approximately the same proportions as in the population Dru Rose

6. C1, L2, S6 Non-Sampling errors Selection bias (RDD-landlines only) non-response/don’t know bias The 5 main poll companies first exclude non-voters and then those with no firm preference (undecided ) Poll %s are for decided voters only (These polls usually produce predictions close to actual election results for the two main parties) Dru Rose

7. C1, L2, S7 Horizon Poll Horizon polls are on-line. People are invited to join the HorizonPoll national online research panel based on the profile of the population at the 2006 census. Large Sample size 1800+(to provide sufficient respondents from minor parties) Weight by age, gender, ethnicity, region, personal income and party vote (2011). Includes both decided voters and undecided voters leaning towards a preference called a Net Potential Vote poll. Dru Rose