Discussion

Discussion

Issue
There have been several instances in the history of the US where data was presented on
an issue, but the sample was not representative of the population from which it was drawn. One
such example is the 2016 Presidential Election polls. According to Mercer et al. (2016), many
polls leading up to the election underestimated the support for Donald Trump.
Why do you believe the sample was not representative of the population?
Mercer et al argue that the sample was not representative due to the fact that many polls
were based on samples that were not representative of the population because they oversampled
college-educated respondents and under sampled non-college-educated respondents (Mercer et
al., 2016). The bias led to an overestimate of support for Hillary Clinton and an underestimate of
support for Donald Trump.
What are the undesirable consequences of using a poor sampling technique?
The undesirable consequences of using a poor sampling technique can be significant.
Inaccurate polling can lead to incorrect predictions about election outcomes, which can have
significant political and social consequences. Additionally, inaccurate data can lead to poor
policy decisions and a lack of trust in the political system.
How could the inaccurate reporting of the data been prevented?
The inaccurate reporting of the data could have been prevented by using a more
representative sample (Zach, 2019). One way to achieve it is to use a multistage sampling
technique which allows for a more diverse sample. Furthermore, a combination of phone and
online surveys can be used to reach a more representative sample of the population. Additionally,
weighting the data based on demographics such as age, race, and education can help to correct

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for any biases in the sample. It’s important to note that the sample should be selected randomly
from the population to be studied, and the sample size should be large enough to be
representative of the population.

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References

Mercer, A., Deane, C., & McGeeney, K. (2016). Why 2016 election polls missed their mark.
Pew Research Centre. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/why-2016-
election-polls-missed-their-mark/
Zach, Z. (2019). What is a Representative Sample and Why is it Important?. Statology. Retrieved
from https://www.statology.org/representative-sample/