2008 Woodie Awards
Marist Poll gears up for midterm elections
James Marconi
Issue date: 11/2/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
As congressional candidates draw closer to the judgment of Election Day on Nov. 7, the Marist Institute of Public Opinion is gearing up in preparation for collecting and analyzing the results, according to Director Lee Miringoff.
Throughout an election cycle, particularly the week before the vote takes place, the "pace picks up," Miringoff said. "We've been polling - actually, we had a huge story last week on the Alan Hevesi controversy…at four [in the afternoon] Elliot Spitzer withdrew endorsement of Alan Hevesi - at five we were revising the [polling] questionnaire. That's about as real time as you get."
The state comptroller race is not the only pre-election polls conducted by MIPO. The institute plans to release results regarding the senatorial race in New York on Friday, and is currently conducting polls on the race in New Jersey between incumbent Robert Menendez and challenger Tom Kean, Jr.
This, according to polling assistant Danielle Cauchi, can make things "a little hectic" around the office and polling area.
"It's really important that we get a certain amount of responses," Cauchi said. After all, she said, there is a huge interest by the outside world in the work being generated by MIPO. "When I'm in the office, I get a lot of calls from the media about what's going on…I think that everyone is very interested in…the elections."
Questioning hundreds of people takes a certain amount of tact and talent, according to Cauchi. Good interviewers need to be, first and foremost, enthusiastic about the job, she said. Confidence also is a must, as well as neutrality - keeping the pollster's personal beliefs completely separate from interviewees. It can also be hard, at times, to deal with the variety of personalities that may be encountered. Some, Cauchi said, are timid and thus hard to keep on the line long enough to complete a survey. Others are the diametric opposite, people who are "really passionate" about their political views and will continue talking on the phone for far longer than the average survey should run. Especially in the weeks preceding an election, interviewees seem more eager to express their political views.
Throughout an election cycle, particularly the week before the vote takes place, the "pace picks up," Miringoff said. "We've been polling - actually, we had a huge story last week on the Alan Hevesi controversy…at four [in the afternoon] Elliot Spitzer withdrew endorsement of Alan Hevesi - at five we were revising the [polling] questionnaire. That's about as real time as you get."
The state comptroller race is not the only pre-election polls conducted by MIPO. The institute plans to release results regarding the senatorial race in New York on Friday, and is currently conducting polls on the race in New Jersey between incumbent Robert Menendez and challenger Tom Kean, Jr.
This, according to polling assistant Danielle Cauchi, can make things "a little hectic" around the office and polling area.
"It's really important that we get a certain amount of responses," Cauchi said. After all, she said, there is a huge interest by the outside world in the work being generated by MIPO. "When I'm in the office, I get a lot of calls from the media about what's going on…I think that everyone is very interested in…the elections."
Questioning hundreds of people takes a certain amount of tact and talent, according to Cauchi. Good interviewers need to be, first and foremost, enthusiastic about the job, she said. Confidence also is a must, as well as neutrality - keeping the pollster's personal beliefs completely separate from interviewees. It can also be hard, at times, to deal with the variety of personalities that may be encountered. Some, Cauchi said, are timid and thus hard to keep on the line long enough to complete a survey. Others are the diametric opposite, people who are "really passionate" about their political views and will continue talking on the phone for far longer than the average survey should run. Especially in the weeks preceding an election, interviewees seem more eager to express their political views.
Be the first to comment on this story