Elections and Polling Paper: Over the years, there has been an increase in the use of public 

opinion polls to convey political information to elites and the general public. The purpose of this 

exercise is to identify two public opinion polls that focus on the upcoming California midterm 

election. One poll should focus on candidates competing for a national office and one poll should 

focus on candidates competing for a state/local office. Your job will be to provide some brief 

background about the contest and Describe & Interpret all relevant polling information, 

including the sample, sample size, sampling technique, sampling error, polling question, and poll

results. You must define all concepts the first time you mention them. To avoid redundancy, be 

sure to define concepts only once. 

Refer to pages 432-439 for this exercise. All papers should be 2-3 pages long. I will require a 

reference section. You must cite the main text plus one to two additional outside sources. Each 

outside source must include all relevant information described above (sample, sample size, etc.). 

Feel free to contact me if you are unsure about your source. You must also provide in-text 

citations whenever you quote, paraphrase, or extract information from your sources. You may 

only quote to define concepts and identify the survey question. 

Formatting Guidelines: All papers should adhere to following formatting guidelines. Failure to 

follow these guidelines will result in a deduction of points. ***An example of the formatting 

guidelines can be found in Moodle. 

1. “Name, Date, and POLS 155” should be in the upper right hand corner –single spaced

2. Title ~ a double space between course information and main body of essay. 

3. Essay must be double-spaced (Before and After Spacing must be set to “0.” You can find 

this when you highlight the text and right-click on “paragraph”)

4. 12 point font, Times New Roman

5. 1 inch margins all around

APSA In-text Citation & Reference Guide: All papers should provide a “Reference Section”

or “Works Cited” page. This lets me know where you have accessed your information. Please 

adhere to the “APSA Citations & Reference Guide,” which can be found Moodle. The Reference 

Section is not part of your page count.