General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Recurring -- and Misleading -- Focus on Party Identification
The discussion of the party identification composition of poll samples comes up in every presidential election with which I've been involved. Interested observers often opine that when a given poll shows that Candidate X is ahead, it cannot be correct because there is a higher percentage of voters who identify with Candidate Xs party in the sample than there should be, based on comparison to some previous standard.
There are several reasons why this is a faulty approach to evaluating a poll's results.
Party identification is basically an attitudinal variable, not a stable population parameter. It is designed to vary. This is distinct from demographic variables such as age, gender, race/ethnicity,
http://pollingmatters.gallup.com/
Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)in his column. Here's are the money quotes:
Whole thing here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-republicans-deluded-by-skewed-polls/2012/09/27/b3dd7d40-08d3-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)*except for me.