How The Poll Was Conducted - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

How The Poll Was Conducted

The KVLY/KFYR Election Poll was designed to produce the most accurate results.  Here is how we conducted our poll.

This poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida from June 4 through June 6, 2012. A total of 625 registered voters were interviewed statewide by telephone.  All stated they were likely to vote in the November general election.

 Those interviewed were randomly selected from a phone-matched list of North Dakota adult residents that included both land-line and cell phone numbers.  Quotas were assigned to reflect voter turn-out by county.

 The margin for error, according to standards customarily used by statisticians, is no more than ±4%.  This means that there is a 95 percent probability that the "true" figure would fall within that range if all voters were surveyed.  The margin for error is higher for any subgroup, such as a gender or party grouping.

 This survey also included an over-sampling of 500 likely Republican primary voters.  The additional voters that were surveyed to complete this poll were only asked the questions that were relative to the GOP primary races – not the general election contests.  The margin for error on the Republican primary results is ±4.5%.