Sampling

When dealing with public opinion polls it is obvious that the entire population will not be asked the questions. In order to best represent the opinions of the entire population pollsters will chose a sample of the population to represent the entire thing. This is a necessary part of polling because it would be far to expensive and time consuming to attempt to reach the entire public. However, sampling is one of the most scrutinized aspect of polling. Many people believe that pollsters will chose a sample which will abide by an already set agenda. For example when dealing with immigration it is likely to see a poll largely in favor of immigration reform in the south but not as much in the north. This is because people in the south are more affected and know what kind of trouble it can cause. This is a targeted audience. To avoid this problem pollsters will use one of many sampling techniques. These techniques include simple random sampling, which takes a population and randomly grabs a chunk. Another way is systematic sampling in which pollsters take a list of people and choose every 10th person on the list to be surveyed. These ways among others help pollsters be sure they have the best interest of the entire population in mind. Though there are still problems within these polling techniques due to the complexity of the task it is the best way to go about doing it.