Tracking vs. Standard

[Whacker77]

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered before, but I'm new here.  What are the differences between tracking polls and standard run on the mill poll?  I appreciate any help.

[The Vorlon]

I the core, there are no differences, all the things you need to do to ensure a good tracking poll are identical to a good regular poll.

In a regular poll you poll for however many days and release it all in one shot.

In a tracking poll, as today's sample rolls on, you drop the sample from a few days back.

One minor  complication is "callbacks" - when you do a regular poll, sometimes you don't reach a phone number selected, so you "callback" to try the next day, or at a different time of day to ensure your sample is as "random" as it can be.

With a daily tracking poll, obviously you do not have this option.

How tracking polls deal with it varies.

Some polls such as Rasmussen and Zogby use somethng called "cluster samples" which do not require callbacks (at least in theory)

ABC and (I believe) TIPP use so called "equal probability of selection" samples which do require callbacks.

ABC for example, if they call your number today and you are not home, calls back tomorrowm so that you are simply in tomorrow's sample, not todays.

[Whacker77]

Gotcha!