Arkansas Poll Now In Progress

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. --- The Arkansas Poll—a random sample telephone survey of 750 adult Arkansans on political and policy issues—is currently under way. Results are expected to be released to news media statewide on Wednesday, Nov. 1.

Designed by professors in the University of Arkansas’ Department of Political Science and conducted by the UA’s Survey Research Center, the second annual Arkansas Poll is asking more than 60 questions this fall. These include approval ratings for various public figures; opinions about state ballot amendments; perceptions about the electoral process, affirmative action, and abortion; orientations toward educational quality, teacher pay, and school vouchers; and much more.

"We’re very excited about producing another high quality, comprehensive survey of the topics near and dear to many Arkansans and important to legislators and policy makers," said Dr. Janine Parry, assistant professor of political science and the poll’s director.

"With a presidential election less than three weeks away, we’re seeing a lot of polling right now by news organizations and commercial polling firms," she said. "While the Arkansas Poll also will be asking questions relevant to the elections, it’s important to note that our poll differs from the typical election season poll in three major ways."

First, Parry said, the Arkansas Poll covers a much larger array of topics.

"Rather than being a few Arkansas-specific questions tacked on to what is otherwise a regional or national poll, the Arkansas Poll yields results on more than five dozen questions on numerous topics."

Parry noted that this comprehensive approach sheds much more light on the citizenry’s overall sense of government and politics than the typical "horserace" poll. The Arkansas Poll is especially useful in showing how certain answers correspond to respondents’ demographic profiles or political views.

"For example, we can examine whether people who support Gore are feeling financially squeezed, or whether people who support Bush are favorable toward school vouchers," she said.

The second reason the Arkansas Poll differs from the other election season polls is that Parry and her fellow researchers have opted not to poll only "likely voters." Instead, their target population is all adult Arkansans.

"While we do have a question gauging the likelihood that respondents will vote on Nov. 7," Parry said, "we believe it is important to emphasize the broader orientation of all Arkansans, whether they plan to vote or not. Only in this way can we provide the fullest possible picture to policymakers."

The third difference of the Arkansas Poll is its ability to measure changes in

opinion over time. "In many instances, we’re asking the same questions we asked of Arkansans last year, so we’ll be able to tell if their opinions have shifted." Parry said. "Long-term patterns paint a richer picture than the short-term glimpses polling projects usually provide."

In the next three to five years, she added, the Arkansas Poll will be able to provide a comprehensive view of how Arkansans’ views are changing on dozens of issues.

"We view the Arkansas Poll as a public service by the University of Arkansas to its sponsoring state," Parry said. "Arkansas public officials and policymakers need to assess the needs and views of our 2.5 million citizens to make effective decisions. We hope the people we call will respond, because the Arkansas Poll gives our citizens perhaps their strongest voice."

To conduct the poll, the UA’s Survey Research Center will have about 30 trained interviewers administering the survey questionnaire over the phones.

The Center uses a computer-aided telephone interviewing (CATI) system, which makes polling more efficient and accurate than previously had been possible.

"Interviewer instructions appear directly on the computer screen as the interview is taking place," said Dr. Molly Longstreth, director of the Survey Research Center. "Respondents’ answers also are input directly into the computer during the course of the interview. This gives researchers a head start in our efforts to comprehensively analyze large amounts of data in a short time. Recording respondents’ answers directly into the computer also reduces the number of data entry mistakes."

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