WPRI 12 Poll Specifications

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - This data is based on a telephone survey of a random sample of 501 Rhode Island, registered voters. (250 1st Congressional District registered voters and 251 2nd Congressional District registered voters.)

Interviewing was conducted by telephone between January 27 and January 31, 2010. Each completed interview lasted approximately eight minutes.

Interviews were completed only with registered voters in Rhode Island who passed a screen designed to establish their registration status

The following category of respondents were screened out of the survey, and thus not included in the final sample of 501 Rhode Island voters:
• Residents who indicated they were not registered to vote or not sure of their registration status.

SAMPLING
The sample is an area random probability sample; respondents' telephone numbers were selected using a computer generated random sample.
Efforts were made to avoid underrepresenting young voters, a fairly common problem in telephone polls. Interviewers were instructed to ask for the youngest person of voting age presently at home to ensure an adequate sampling of young voters.

Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding off.

In reading the data, one should bear in mind that the results are subject to sampling error; that is, the difference between the results obtained from our sample and the results, which would be obtained by surveying the entire adult voting population.

The size of a possible sampling error varies with the percentage of any group given a particular answer, and with the size of each group analyzed; i.e., ALL VOTERS, Men, Women, union members, ages 18-39, etc.

The following table outlines the range of error in samples of different sizes and at different percentages of response.
For the overall sample of 501, the sampling margin of error 95 times out of 100 is approximately 4.38%, though slightly lower (3.8%) for responses selected by very high or low percentages of the total sample. In the Congressional Districts with a 250 sample the sampling margin of error 95 times out of 100 is approximately 6.2%, though slightly lower (5.8%) for responses selected by very high or low percentages of the total sample.

RECOMMENDED ALLOWANCE FOR SAMPLING ERROR
(At 95 in 100 confidence level*)

Sample Size
                                                                          500 400 300 200 100
                                                                            %      %     %   %     %
Percentage near 10                                       3       3      4     4       7
Percentage near 20                                       4      4       5     6       9
Percentage near 30                                       4      5       6     7     10
Percentage near 40                                       4      5       7     8      11
Percentage near 50                                       4      5       7     8      11
Percentage near 60                                       4      5       7     8      11
Percentage near 70                                       4      5       6     7      10
Percentage near 80                                       4      4       5     6        9
Percentage near 90                                       3      3       4     4        7
*The chances are 95 in 100 that the
sampling error is not larger than
the figure shown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLOSSARY

For the reader's benefit, a description is offered below of how these groups have been derived from specific survey questions.

Gender  These categories are derived by the
Male (46%) respondent's voice.
Female (54%)

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Distict 1 (50%) These categories are derived from
District 2 (50%) voters residents

AGE
18-39 (26%)
40-59 (45%) These categories are derived from
60 and older (29%) Question 2
Refused ++ ( *% )

UNION STATUS

Union (23%) These categories are derived from
Non Union (76%) Question 14

POLICITAL PARTY

Democrat (39%)
Republican (17%) These categories are derived from
Independent (Vol) (41%) Question 15
Refused ++ ( 4%)