Sample design is very important. For example, in the U.S. 2000 presidential election, Florida was initially declared for the Democratic candidate based on a sample that did not truly reflect the entire state. Careful consideration must be paid to ensure a representative sample if we are inferring those results on a population.

Have you seen or read about an example where data were presented on an issue, but the sample was not representative of the population from which it was drawn? If you can't recall a specific example, locate one using an Internet search.

For this discussion, summarize the issue and respond to the following questions.

• Why do you believe the sample was not representative of the population?
• What are the undesirable consequences of using a poor sampling technique?
• How could the inaccurate reporting of the data been prevented?