Political Polling Methods

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

Polling is used to study a broad range of things in the world of government and public policy. These include measuring the public's policy preferences, predicting elections, mobilizing supporters when lobbying for change or trying to win elections, and planning and evaluating government policies. However, methods of polling are changing rapidly because of the prohibitive difficulty of interviewing people on the phone, requiring new sampling and interviewing methods to keep up with changing technology and lifestyles. This course introduces students to modern methods for conducting and interpreting public opinion polls. Specific skills covered include writing good questions, drawing a survey sample, weighting the results and creating basic presentations of findings. They also include an introduction to the psychology of how people respond to survey questions and why the opinions expressed change over time.