Using voter lists to create telephone and mail samples: two validation studies from a single community
By
Nicoleta Corbu, Qingmei Qing & Lee B. Becker
Abstract
One of the main problems of survey methodology is related to possible biases due to
the sampling method, especially biases related to low return rates. Currently, random
telephone number generation is the most widely used methods in telephone surveys,
which are still the most widely used sampling method in election polls. In recent years,
Registration-based sampling (RBS) method has gain a lot of attention in public opinion
research field and have been approved by many scholars for its effectiveness of gaining a
relatively representative sample. The present research focuses on two validation studies
from the same community using RBS method.
The present research has two main purposes . First, the study tried to compare the
survey response rates between telephone survey and mail survey under the condition of
the same sampling method- RBS. Second, the current research also focused on the
capacity of address-based sampling using voter registration lists to provide an accurate
sample for election polls, both in telephone surveys and in mail surveys. This paper
presents the results of two different studies completed in November 2008 and March
2009. The first used a telephone survey based on a sample drawn from a voter
registration list. The second used a mail survey based on a voter registration list as well.
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