RAND Panel unique in polling

One way to track changes in political opinion is with a panel, where the same group of people is asked to respond periodically during a campaign season. Each election season, the RAND Corporation conducts a Presidential Election Panel Survey, or PEPS, using the RAND American Life Panel.

 According to the website, “RAND American Life Panel (ALP) is a nationally representative, probability-based panel of over 6000 members ages 18 and older who are regularly interviewed over the internet for research purposes.” Other polls use panels, but RAND differs in a few ways:

 RAND American Life Panel

·      The poll gives the technology needed to participate to the panel members. This way the panel is more similar to the U.S. adult population as a whole

·      This panel is continuous, so that responses from participants can be tracked over time. This gives RAND an interesting perspective into true changes in public opinion (this approach forecasted the 2012 U.S. presidential election)

·      Survey results are available to researchers online, which links new data to old data

 Advantages

1.     Researchers  can track participant answers over time, making it possible to measure change.

2.     Probabilistic Polling: rather than simply asking if the participants are voting, PEPS asks the participant how likely they are to vote overall, and then how likely they are to vote for each candidate

 RAND’s methodology is an accredited system, sponsored by: nonprofit organizations, US government agencies, international organizations, US state and local governments, colleges and universities and other professional associations.

By Lily Mandell