Question:

Poll Demographics

About this Poll
The latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll was conducted Oct. 18-23, 2007 with a scientifically selected random
sample of 1,002 New Jersey adults. This sample yielded 856 adult residents who said they are registered
to vote in New Jersey. Unless otherwise noted, most of the figures in this release are based on the
statewide sample of registered voters. Sampling and data collection were conducted by Braun Research,
Princeton, NJ.
All surveys are subject to sampling error, which is the expected probable difference between interviewing
everyone in a population versus a scientific sampling drawn from that population. The sampling error for
a sample of 1,002 adults is + 3.1 percent, at a 95 percent confidence interval. The margin of sampling
error for 856 registered voters is + 3.4 percent. Thus if 50 percent of registered voters were found to have
a favorable opinion of a presidential candidate, one would be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be
between 46.6 percent and 53.4 percent (50 percent + 3.4 percent) had all New Jersey registered voters
been interviewed, rather than just a sample. Sampling error increases as the sample size decreases, so
statements based on various population subgroups are subject to more error than are statements based on
the total sample. The following chart shows the relationship between sample size and sampling error.
Sampling error does not take into account other sources of variation inherent in public opinion studies,
such as non-response, question wording or context effects. This background memo contains the verbatim
wording of all questions featured in the release.