Appraising a poll. A New York Times article on attitudes toward the political parties discussed the results of a sample survey that found, for example, that 44% of adults think the Democrats “have better ideas for leading the country into the 21st century.” Another 37% chose the Republicans;

the others had no opinion. Here is part of the Times’s statement on “How the Poll Was Conducted”:

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll is based on telephone interviews conducted Nov. 4 through 7 with 1,162 adults throughout the United States. . . .

The sample of telephone exchanges called was randomly selected by a computer from a complete list of more than 42,000 active residential exchanges across the country.

Within each exchange, random digits were added to form a complete telephone number, thus permitting access to both listed and unlisted numbers. Within each household, one adult was designated by a random procedure to be the respondent for the survey.

Page 70 lists several “questions to ask” about an opinion poll. What answers does the Times give to each of these questions?

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