[At Home In Europeia] The Importance and Purpose of Polling






The Importance and Purpose of Polling
Thoughts and Opinions

Written by Xecrio



Europeia's Fascination with Polling
Europeia certainly has a history with polling. Every few months we partake in elections that involve citizens making decisions and then voting on them. In the lead-up to these elections we have opinion polls to see where Europeians stand, and where they might end up. Europeia also has a census to see where citizens are from and how active they are in the region. There is no doubt that polling is seen as something of an importance in Europeia; without it, it would be incredibly difficult to know all of the things we needed to know. If this is the case, why is it that in the recent executive satisfaction poll, there were only 16 responses? Perhaps the polls just aren’t fun enough, or perhaps citizens have lost touch with why polling is so important. The most recent poll was Euro Census survey, which received 36 responses in the first 24 hours. In order to accurately compare it to the previous census, Prim waited a further 4 days to achieve the 41 responses he needed. There were no responses in the last 24 hours of the poll.

Why do we need polls?
Before we continue, we must first look at why we poll at all. There are many different types of polls, but let us focus on opinion polls. Opinion polls are a non-bias survey or question that aims to measure the respondents' views on a certain topic. Often, interpretations can be made on the result a pollster gives. For instance, if a respondent indicates they like ketchup the most, we can infer that they are not too keen on other condiments. This gives us some basic knowledge about their style of eating, yet without the poll that would be shrouded in mystery. It is important that everyone has an equal chance of taking the poll, so as not to produce a biased outcome. Again, this refers back to the main point. The importance of polling is to produce an unbiased outcome that can only be obtained when there is a significant number of respondents to the poll. In Europeia, the key to polling can be seen as pings. If a pollster does not receive enough responses, they may ping certain groups of citizens. Where this doesn't work, citizens may be privately messaged. This suggests that pollsters are eager to get citizens to respond to the poll in order to receive an unbiased and comparable result.

The Importance of polls
Why are polls so important then? Kurz gesagt, polls tell us what proportion of a population has a specific viewpoint. How many people prefer private ballots, for example. A poll is not designed to change someone’s mind, and while the results may have an impact on the respondent's viewpoint, the poll itself is designed to collect information of the opinion of someone about a specific topic. It is important that there are a wide variety of poll respondents. If only the same people continually vote, there is no variety and most of the time, the answers will be very similar, making it hard for poll responses to be compared to past ones. It gives an opportunity for those who are often left behind to have their voices heard.

Some Final Notes
This article has established that polling is important. They provide the pollster with information about a specific topic that allows the pollster to create data based on the responses received. They serve the function of allowing the citizenry to voice their opinions on a certain topic, such as the domestic executive or the executive split. Polls are often poorly designed, leading to a bias in the outcome. To fix this, there must be a wide variety of respondents. Polls are not factual, and nor should they seek to be. Let’s recap why polls are important and what purpose they serve:
  • Polls act as an image which represents the opinions of different people
  • Polls are representative, not factual
  • Polls should seek to maintain and unbiased outcome
  • Polls should have a wide variety of respondents
  • Without polls, we wouldn’t possess vital information
  • Without polls, we cannot compare them to past responses to see how opinion has changed over time
All in all, although polling might be tedious, and the collection of such results a task that some find exhausting, it is very clear that it is important that we continue to poll and people continue to respond to those polls, and we continue to collect the results of them.
 
Well written, Nate!! Polls are great, I think it can only be a good thing we do them as often as we do. Where's the fun in an election without flash polls after every event?
 
Nice work Xecrio! One of the things Euro has helped me with is conducting polls, sure I've collected data and done analysis for uni projects before, but having conducted a flash poll or executive satisfaction poll is very different, and a lot of work when you're doing it for the first time - but it's also really enjoyable getting results!
 
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