Political Poll

I'm working on a poll for a government class, so if you guys can just answer yes or no to these questions, that'll be great, thanks.

1. Do you vote in presidential elections?
2. Do you vote in congressional elections?
3. Do you know the name of congressional representatives
4. Do you know the names of both US senators
5. Occasionally contact locally officials ?
6. Do you vote local elections?
7. Do you occasionally attend public meetings?
8. Do you occasionally contact federal or state officials?
9. Do you know the name of a State senator?
10. Do you give money to a candidate or party?
11. Do you know the name of a State representative?

1. No
2. No
3. Yes
4. I always though there were more than two senators.
5. Yes
6. Yes
7. No
8. Yes
9. Yes
10. No
11. Yes

This thread will probably be closed, seeing as homework threads aren't allowed and all.

1. Do you vote in presidential elections? Yes.
2. Do you vote in congressional elections? Yes.
3. Do you know the name of congressional representatives. Yes. Mine is Max Sandlin (R-Texas)
4. Do you know the names of both US senators. John Cornyn & Kay Bailey Hutchinson (both R-Texas)
5. Occasionally contact locally officials ? No.
6. Do you vote local elections? No.
7. Do you occasionally attend public meetings? No.
8. Do you occasionally contact federal or state officials? No.
9. Do you know the name of a State senator? No.
10. Do you give money to a candidate or party? No.
11. Do you know the name of a State representative? No.

First: You're doing a poll on people's political knowledge in a forum dedicated to politics. Even someone who didn't know anything about survey techniques could tell you that that's not a valid technique. In fact, that's a textbook example of how NOT to do a survey. Also, this'll probably get closed because of a policy on homework threads, but I'll answer it regardless:

1. Do you vote in presidential elections? Yes
2. Do you vote in congressional elections? Yes
3. Do you know the name of congressional representatives Yes, Mike Rogers
4. Do you know the names of both US senators Yes, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow
5. Occasionally contact locally officials ? No
6. Do you vote local elections? If I feel the issues are worth it
7. Do you occasionally attend public meetings? No
8. Do you occasionally contact federal or state officials? Yes
9. Do you know the name of a State senator? No
10. Do you give money to a candidate or party? No
11. Do you know the name of a State representative? No

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No
5. No
6. No
7. No
8. No
9. Yes
10. No
11. No

As Arainach said - polls are meant to be directed at a representative sample of general society, not a small group who are likely to be fairly unanimously knowledgeable about the field they're being asked about. (Although in a sense, I suppose you've managed to get enough data to prvoe some kind of point anyway.)

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. Yes - John McCain and John Kyl
5. No
6. Occasionally
7. No
8. No
9. Yes
10. No
11. No

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No
5. No
6. No
7. No
8. No
9. Yes
10. No
11. No

1. Haven't got the chance to yet. (Was younger than 18 in Nov 2004)
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. I assume you mean my state, yes.
5. Yes, to yell at their ineptness.
6. Yes.
7. No but my parents do.
8. No.
9. Yes.
10. Fuck that.
11. Yes.

Originally Posted by Arainach

First: You're doing a poll on people's political knowledge in a forum dedicated to politics. Even someone who didn't know anything about survey techniques could tell you that that's not a valid technique. In fact, that's a textbook example of how NOT to do a survey. Also, this'll probably get closed because of a policy on homework threads, but I'll answer it regardless:

Yeah, I know it's not a representative sample of the population, but the assignments not a big deal. And sorry, didn't know the policy, I don't know how to delete or close the thread, so if someone can do that, cool. Thanks for the answers anyways.