Presidential Poll Tracker SurveyMonkey Style

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Poll numbers are all over the place these days.
While mail surveys have been discarded in favor of the faster, more cost-efficient telephone survey, polling accuracy still leaves much to be desired.
Will Internet companies pick up the slack? Many would argue that the web, with its vast coverage, still falls short of producing valid, generalizable data.
Until now...
Recently, SurveyMonkey unveiled its plans to close the election-results prediction loop. Over one million people complete our surveys every day, so using a portion of that traffic over the course of three months, we will estimate the public's opinion toward Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Stay tuned! Follow our blog for the latest on the presidential race. We'll keep you posted with up-to-the day results.


Winning tips for effective political surveys
Create your own political surveys to gather feedback on the issues that matter. Just follow these tips to ensure survey success:
Keep it anonymous.
Survey takers should know exactly how their responses will be handled. They're more likely to answer more questions and more candidly, at that.

Use question randomization.
Question order can influence how people respond to your survey. For example, if you have a series of questions in the following order: 1. What is the best thing about schools in your district? 2. How satisfied are you with how your local politician is handling her job? Just answering Question 1 can affect how people answer Question 2. To help reduce bias, randomize your questions.

Test, test, then test some more.
Have several peers or colleagues take your survey before you send it out. They can provide valuable feedback on the clarity of the questions and answer choices/structure.

Choose the appropriate sample size.
Using polls to predict election results can only be accurate when the survey sample represents the eventual decision makers. Be sure to include respondents from all of the appropriate demographics.

Create your own political survey today »