Difference between revisions of "Poll"
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Revision as of 16:40, January 17, 2009
A poll is a survey of a group of people about an issue in politics, religion, business or other subject matter.
There are many different ways to conduct a poll. Straw polls are very common on the Internet. These are very unreliable because, like in phone-in polls, people can vote as many times as they feel like. Push-polls contact potential voters and ask questions intended to plant a message, usually negative, rather than gauging attitudes. [1]
Random sampling is a method which is much more reliable because a large number of randomly chosen people each vote once on pertinent issues. There is always a margin of error, like + or - 5%, because no poll is entirely accurate.
Exit polls are controversial, because voting is considered private, and exit polls ask people when they leave the booth how they voted. They usually ask only a fraction of the voters, but they're able to make a pretty good estimate of who's going to win the election.
