Many independent agencies, such as post-secondary institutions, newspapers, and news organizations, utilize political polling to gain a better understanding of current elections. Regardless of your affiliation, there are several reasons you should outsource your polling needs to a service like Political Robo Calling.
Reduce Bias
No matter how hard you try, it is easy to bias polling results, especially if you are not adequately trained in survey development and asking questions. The easiest way to minimize bias is to limit your involvement in the polling. If you choose to hire a polling service, you will work with the company to develop questions that will be asked to the respondents. Since the service is experienced with experimental design, you will likely work together to formulate questions.
Simple problems that may occur can include not asking the appropriate question for the type of information you want or inadvertently wording questions in a biased manner. For example, it is always better to ask which candidate a person will vote for and give them a list of options than it is to ask them if they are voting for a specific candidate. Using a polling service can be especially useful in local and state elections, since the service you use may be in a different state. Interviewers are unlikely to have an emotional investment in candidates at the state and local level, reducing bias even more.
Use More Efficient Polling
Using efficient polling strategies that may not be at your disposal can reduce the time it takes to finish your poll. Additionally, doing polling the traditional way by calling individual numbers can be unnecessarily time-consuming. Fortunately, most polling services use automated call systems where the questions are asked by a recording. It is easier to survey a wide number of people, especially in national elections or if your polling will address elections going on in several states at once. Talking with people about their voting and political choices is best saved for after the initial poll. You can use information from the first, automated poll to create a targeted demographic of people who you want to call and have them answer questions from an interviewer.
Have Better Statistics
Many of the important aspects of a statistical test occurs before the polling begins. You need to select the right statistical test for the information you will analyze. Additionally, there are different pre-tests involved to determine if you will have a large enough sample size to minimize error. You may also want tests that include different demographic information about voters. This way, you can find out if a specific candidate does well among voters of a certain demographic. Knowing this information can cause you to inquire about a specific candidate's strategy or if changes in the demographic make-up could have profound effects on future elections.
Handing off your political polling endeavors to a neutral third-party is the appropriate way to reduce bias while maintaining a high-quality political poll.
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