Fee Vote Stats

[JesseMartin]

It also occurred to me tonight that another problem with both Daily polls (one trending in favor of the fee, the other trending against) is that neither involved a qualifying question. Ever do a poll or survey (online, over the phone, or in person), where after they asked you one or two questions, they didn't really get to the point of the poll or survey? If so, it's because you failed the qualifying question (or series of questions).

The one that showed trending against the fee, in particular, was not only an opinion poll, but did not reach the intended targets. They should have required a qualifying question, one such as, "Will you be voting in the upcoming student (or Student Government) election?" If the answer is no, you automatically don't count, and they don't ask you the fee question.

This has been a repeated problem with the Daily...though, I must say, I do not recall similar problems in years when they won awards. Maybe their foci on certain aspects of responsible journalism are cyclical. Regardless, the poll that we like was known to be a self-selecting internet poll, while the "study" in which the class engaged was a disaster from a scientific/polling/statistical standpoint.

The point of all of this is that many students may not favor or care about the fee, but many disinterested students also do not vote. Remember, the campus voting average is similar to (though at times higher than) the national averages of both student AND municipal/county elections. It is likely that a considerable cross-section of the students polled (which likely was not even a random sampling) are not even interested in voting.

A few of the journalism students I knew had to take part in similar "projects". Many times they'd ask a few friends to answer the questions until they reached their quota. Hardly scientific and certainly not random.