A polling company is gathering data on an upcoming presidential election in the United States. To try to predict who would win the election, the company had its employees call 1,000 people in New Hampshire and ask which candidate they preferred. From this data, they announced that one candidate had a commanding lead in the national election. Which of the following correctly describes the polling company's sample?
Is this biased or unbiased, or both?

Question

A polling company is gathering data on an upcoming presidential election in the United States. To try to predict who would win the election, the company had its employees call 1,000 people in New Hampshire and ask which candidate they preferred. From this data, they announced that one candidate had a commanding lead in the national election. Which of the following correctly describes the polling company's sample?
Is this biased or unbiased, or both?

anonymous · Answer

It's biased because certain states favor different politicians.
The correct way would be to get an equal amount of votes from all states.

unklerhaukus · Answer

the sample space does not accurately reflect the people that will vote

anonymous · Answer

Biased: you ask every fifth person leaving a New York Yankees baseball game which team they think is the best in baseball (biased because a majority of people going to Yankees games are Yankees fans)
Unbiased: you ask every fifth person leaving a Yankees game what their favorite kind of ice cream is. Unbiased because Yankees fans are no more or less likely to prefer a certain brand of ice cream than any other person.

anonymous · Answer

Remember to close the problem