Polls have made the headlines over the years for being biased or skewed to favor an issue, candidate, or position. We take considerable pride in conducting our surveys and polls without bias. A poll is not reliable unless it follows statistical principles with questions crafted to not influence the readers opinion. Surveys do not follow statistical principles but rather focus on getting responses, even if it means the data is skewed towards a particular group.
All our public polls go through a review process to ensure our questions are not influencing people’s opinion. We use traditional statistical methodology to ensure our responding population matches the local demographics.
Poll results are published with the population size and the standard deviation of the results in the footer of the results. A link to this methodology page is included.
This poll website is unique. We only poll individuals within the Hunt County and we break down the results by voting districts, when applicable. Due to the community interest in doing these polls across demographics we can have a large population of people answer questions every day. Daily polls are online for only one week to allow all members the ability to answer all polls from the last week.
Once a poll is closed, we compile the results and remove any results from the pool that is outside of the targeted area. Meaning if the poll is only for Greenville residents and you live outside of Greenville, your answers will be removed. Our software randomly selects a pool of results from the remaining valid population pool. The randomly selected population is placed into demographic linked categories. Each demographic linked category is weighted based on how far it is from the actual population demographic category.
For instance, one demographic category is “Hispanic-male”. Based on the current demographics for the area being polled, if the Hispanic-male demographic is overrepresented by 5%, they will receive a -5% weighting. Each poll answer, by a “Hispanic-male” would be worth 5% less. When one demographic is over-represented, another will be under-represented and each survey answer for an under-represented demographic would be weighted with a positive number. This allows for all demographics to be represented based on the demographics of the area being polled. The poll will then be statistically sound. Each poll will have different demographic weighting, based on the total valid response. This site does not require user registration, in order to ensure anonymity. Due to the same people answering questions every day, we must ensure randomness in which results are considered as part of the official poll results. We must perform weighting to ensure demographic accuracy.
Poll answers that are close and within the margin of error will be conducted multiple times over a period of weeks. The questions might change or be the exact same question asked before. We do this to ensure our results are accurate. A statistically reliable poll should be duplicatable. Each time the poll questions are asked, the results should be statistically the same. Duplicated poll questions, with answers that do not statistically match, are flagged for internal review to find the cause of the discrepancy. We will not publish poll results that have flagged statistical inaccuracies.
For quality control, we also will conduct phone based and in person-based poll’s asking baseline questions to ensure our online poll results are statistically accurate.
We conduct both polls and surveys. Results will annotate whether the information is a poll, or a survey and the methodology we used will be included on the report and summary. Polls will have statistical accuracy while surveys will not. Due to how we conduct our polls and our ability to gather a large number of responses within a few days, most of our customers will choose to have a poll conducted instead of a survey because of the accuracy of the results.
Survey and Polling data is anonymized for non-logged in users.
Logged in users will have poll results anonymized when we close a poll. Once it is anonymized, poll data cannot be traced back to an individual account. Any requests you make for your personal data would not include any data obtained from polls or surveys since it has been anonymized. When you create a profile, you are assigned a demographic category based on your profile answers. Many users will have the same demographic category. When surveys or polls are closed, our software anonymizes your answers by assigning your answers to your demographic category and removing any trace of who answered the questions. This ensures that your answers cannot be traced back to you. Since many people have the same demographic category, it is impossible to know which person in a demographic category answered the questions. See our privacy page about how we keep your information private.
