Chapter 1.5, Problem 27AYU

Exit Polling During every election, pollsters conduct exit polls to help determine which candidate people voted for. During the 2004 presidential election, pollsters incorrectly predicted John Kerry the winner over George Bush. When asked how this error could have happened, the pollsters cited interviewer error due to the fact that many of the interviewers were young, only young voters agreed to be interviewed, and young voters tended to favor Kerry. Plus, young interviewers tend to make more data-entry mistakes. In addition, the method of selecting individuals to be interviewed led to selecting a higher proportion of female voters, and Kerry was favored by females. In some precincts, interviewers were denied access to voters. Research the 2004 exit polling fiasco. Explain which nonsampling errors led to the incorrect conclusion regarding the 2004 election.