Student-Run Exit Polls 101

PS: Political Science & Politics

For decades, political and private polling operations have informed about the public’s perceptions regarding a range of topics. In particular, universities (e.g., Marist and Quinnipiac) provide noteworthy research to inform and predict the outcomes of US elections. Yet, what role do our classrooms play in advancing the public opinion polling skills of our students? This article uses experiential learning as a descriptive framework to illustrate how a yearlong, immersive, and student-led public opinion polling experience, the Big Sky Poll, advances students’ social-science and data-fluency skills. Our findings suggest important insights into the future of public opinion polling from the vantage point of a rural Western state, which can be replicated in other academic institutions.

PS: Political Science & Politics

ABSTRACTGood education requires student experiences that deliver lessons about practice as well as theory and that encourage students to work for the public good—especially in the operation of democratic institutions (Dewey 1923; Dewy 1938). We report on an evaluation of the pedagogical value of a research project involving 23 colleges and universities across the country. Faculty trained and supervised students who observed polling places in the 2016 General Election. Our findings indicate that this was a valuable learning experience in both the short and long terms. Students found their experiences to be valuable and reported learning generally and specifically related to course material. Postelection, they also felt more knowledgeable about election science topics, voting behavior, and research methods. Students reported interest in participating in similar research in the future, would recommend other students to do so, and expressed interest in more learning and research about t...

2021

Journal of Political Science Education, 2018

College campuses have taken on increased responsibility for mobilizing young voters. Despite the discipline's commitment to civic engagement, political science departments play a minimal role in this programming. This article outlines a course structure – including learning objectives, course outline, and assessments-that treats a campus-wide voter mobilization drive as the basis of an applied political science course. Transforming a campus voter mobilization program into a political science practicum offers advanced skill-building for students seeking political careers and links learning objectives to real world activities. Participants report gains in both knowledge of campaigns and grassroots campaign skills. We argue this type of course particularly benefits students attending colleges and universities in geographic areas that receive little attention from political campaigns as well as those students for whom the traditional route of gaining political experience – an unpaid, off-campus internship – is impractical or even impossible.

Journal of Communication Pedagogy, 2021

Drawing on challenges I experienced when teaching a political communication course, I designed an upper-level undergraduate course with the objective of developing students' civic competence and democratic engagement. The major class assignment, which is the focal point of this best practices essay, was a four-step collaborative voter mobilization project designed and executed by undergraduate students. I use research, classroom conversations, and student observations to discuss four best practices for encouraging students to participate in electoral politics: (a) fostering political efficacy, (b) peer-to-peer learning, (c) experiential learning, and (d) learning through reflection. This essay breaks a four-step collaborative voting mobilization project down into easily implementable steps for those seeking to inculcate attitudes and behaviors that foster democratic engagement whether that be in schools, universities, or within the broader community.

PS: Political Science & Politics, 2006

In November 2000, exit poll interviews with voters in Florida indicated that Al Gore won the state. As a result, many television networks declared Gore the winner of Florida, a pivotal state to win ning the presidency in 2000. Only a few hours later, the first vote tallies from the Florida Secretary of State's office re vealed that George W. Bush was in fact leading in Florida. After 45 days of re counts and lawsuits, it was clear that the exit polls were wrong; Bush had won the state by the narrowest of margins. As a result of the flawed exit poll' the media and pollsters scoured and reanalyzed the methodology used in 2000 to prepare and correct for the 2004 presidential election. The old system, Voter News Service (VNS) was scrapped entirely, and Edison-Mitofsky Research was cho sen to implement a new and more accu rate national exit poll in 2004 by a consortium of news organizations re tained by the Associated Press called the National Election Pool (NEP). What hap pened? Exit poll results from Edison Mitofsky showed John Kerry ahead in Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico-all states which he lost to Bush in 2004. In addition to the overall exit poll re sults being skewed, comparative vote results for subgroups, such as that for Latino voters, also appeared to be wrong. The NEP reported on November 2, 2004, that Bush won 45% of the Latino vote, a 10-point gain from 2000. In contrast, an exit poll of only Latino voters conducted by the William C. Velasquez Institute reported that Bush won only 32% of the Latino vote. Moreover, a pre-election survey of Latino voters by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank with more than 10 years expe rience polling Latino voters, reported Bush garnering just 30% of the vote (see Leal et al. 2005). What explains such discrepancies? One possibility is the methodology used to select the precincts where exit poll interviews are conducted is faulty. Ide ally, the respondents in the exit poll sur vey will be accurate representatives of the entire city or state in which the elec tion is being held. However, if the exit poll interviews respondents that are too conservative or too liberal, too young or too old, too poor or too rich, or too White, it could skew the overall results by a wide margin, even after weights are employed. Existing exit polls are often unreliable because the members of the demographic subgroups interviewed for the poll are not necessarily representative of all members of their demographic subgroup. What's more, with a growing number of Americans voting via absentee ballot, Election Day-only exit polls2 could miss a large segment of the electorate. Since the November 2004 presidential election considerable media coverage has focused on the exit poll controversy. A December 2004 New York Times article noted that Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) asked Edison-Mitofsky "to turn over raw data collected in Election Day exit polls, for investigation of any dis crepancies between voter responses and certified election results" (Associated Press 2004); a January 2005 Washington Post headline read, "Report Acknowl edges Inaccuracies in 2004 Exit Poll" (Morin and Deane 2005); and CNN noted in January 2005 that the Kerry numbers were "overstated," and claimed that "CNN did not air those inaccurate results or post them on its website." Thus, many scholars and pundits reached the conclusion that new alternatives to the traditional exit poll may be warranted. Specifically, we pose two important methodological questions pertaining to the science behind exit polls: (1) what is the most accurate sampling technique for polling racial and ethnic voters in a diverse setting, and (2) how should exit polls account for early and absentee votes not cast on Election Day? To an swer these questions, we implemented an alternative sampling exit poll in the City of Los Angeles during the 2005 mayoral election and compared our re sults to the exit poll implemented by the Los Angeles Times. We then compared both polls to the actual election results. In short, the different methodologies accounted for different results, suggest ing that new approaches to exit polling are welcome.

Southern Political Science Association. Online: http:/ …, 2009

In this paper, we present preliminary voter turnout exit poll data reported on younger political cohorts in the 2008 presidential elections. The overall trend is that youth are turning out to vote at higher levels than in previous elections, and that they are becoming more liberal. Next, we report on a sample of youth who took part in a rigorous civic education high school program, We the People; the Citizen and the Constitution. The 300 We the People alumni demonstrated great interest and engagement in the political process. They clearly distinguished between the two parties by providing policy and ideological stances. Presidential candidates, especially Obama, reached out to younger voters in the 2008 election. However, being contacted during the campaign did not sway alumni's decision to turn out or to vote. Young voters were mobilized through their cell phones and their online networking sites, and were able to use a wide variety of online sources to gather information on candidates. The majority of alumni expressed optimism about the future of the nation, grounded primarily in the political institutions and the resourceful spirit of Americans.

Statistics and Public Policy

Recently, voter ID laws have been instituted, modified, or overturned in many states in the U.S. As these laws change, it is important to have accurate measures of their impact. We present the data collection methods and results of class projects that attempted to quantify the impact of the voter ID laws in areas of three states. We also summarize the types of data used to assess the impact of voter ID laws and discuss how our data address some of the shortcomings of the usual techniques for assessing the impact of voter ID laws.

Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 2019

During the 2016 election season, the authors-a collection of staff, faculty, and students at a rural, four-year comprehensive college-piloted a new format for a student-driven, campuswide, nonpartisan voter mobilization campaign anchored in a political science course and supported by a credit-bearing internship and advanced graphic design course. We argue that this project offers a model for how collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs can transform the nonpartisan voter mobilization campaign into a site for interdisciplinary, cross-campus service-learning projects that benefit the student participants and the campus community. This article outlines the advantages and challenges of the project and concludes with recommendations for those interested in implementing a similar program.

PS: Political Science & Politics, 2017

This article describes the creation and implementation of a new online assessment program (“PACKS”) for the department of politics at the University of Virginia. It discusses the benefits of online assessments, including the ease of administration, minimal faculty involvement, ability to link assessment data to existing student data (e.g., GPA and courses completed), and ability to track student progress over time. The assessment can be easily adapted for use by other departments in the social sciences and by other colleges and universities. The authors discuss the drawbacks to this type of assessment, including the challenge of obtaining the highest number of respondents. They recommend using a strong incentive to ensure full participation, such as an advising hold that prevents students from registering until they complete the assessment. The authors contend that implementing survey-based assessment tools is an ideal way for departments to meet their accrediting institutions’ asse...