Exit poll
Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "Collection of Data"
Meaning
In an exit poll, a random sample of voters leaving polling booths is asked whom they voted for. The results are used to predict the election outcome. Exit polls can go wrong for three reasons. Some voters refuse to answer (non-response). The sample may not cover all kinds of voters (sampling bias). Some voters give false answers. Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act 1951 bans conducting or publishing exit polls from the start of polling in the first phase until half an hour after polling closes in the last phase.
Example
After a multi-phase Lok Sabha election, TV channels may release exit-poll projections only once the Section 126A ban ends. Their predictions sometimes differ sharply from the counted result.
Don't confuse with
- Non-random sampling: as NCERT describes it, an exit poll uses a random sample of voters, not a sample chosen by convenience.
Related concepts
- Census
- Sample survey
- Population
- Sample
- Representative sample
- Population parameter
- Random sampling
- Non-random sampling
- Sampling frame
- Lottery method