SURVEYS AS LEGAL EVIDENCE

Survey researchers are frequently frustrated and irritated bythe difficulties they encounter when the results of their surveysare introduced as legal evidence. The sources of these difficultiesare traced to contrasting scientific and legal interest in "truth"and methods for establishing truth. These contrasts explainwhy the scientific worth of a survey is, by itself, insufficientto establish its relevance and value as evidence in an individualcase. Consequently, despite the widespread use of survey datain litigation, the admissibility of and evidentiary weight givento surveys remains problematic. Survey researchers must be assensitive to legal precedent and rules of evidence as they areto scientific method when designing surveys for their data tobe accepted by a court.     

Polls as Journalism

Public opinion polling has always had close financial and institutionalties to journalism. Many of its strengths and weaknesses derivefrom these ties.     

Question Order Effect and the Measurement of Candidate Preference in the 1982 Connecticut Elections

Conflicting poll results from the New York Times and the HartfordCourant concerning the 1982 Connecticut senatorial contest ledto the hypothesis that when voting preferences in two contestsare measured in the same poll, question order will affect candidatestandings. A subsequent poll, based on a split-sample design,verified this hypothesis. The relation of the question ordereffect to party identification, candidate preference, politicalideology, and education is also examined.