HOW TO CONDUCT YOUR

OWN POLLING
 PROCESS BREAKDOWN

Fieldwork
• Questionnaire Design • Data Encoding
• Sampling Preparation • Data Cleaning
• Field Operations Plan • Field Progress and • Data Processing/
• Briefing & Training Monitoring Tabulation
• Field Materials • Quality Checking • Report Preparation
Reproduction & Releasing

Pre-Fieldwork Post-Fieldwork
 PRE-FIELDWORK: QUESTIONNAIRE
DESIGN
Set-up a meeting with client or principal to align on the research objectives and
details of the political survey to be conducted
As the questionnaire is somehow standardized already, confirm with the principal
the following:
List of political personalities (national and/or local) whose awareness, trust and
satisfaction are to assessed in the survey
Additional questions to be asked given the principal’s objectives
 Other information that needs to be aligned with principal:
Area coverage (by municipality only, by district, etc)
Key timelines
Budget
 DO’S
Do’s IN CRAFTING SURVEY QUESTIONS
 Stick to the objectives
 Only ask relevant questions that help you achieve your research objective

 Question flow should be from broad to specific questions

 Example start with overview of life in the area before asking about specific politicians

 Use the right question type

 Qualitative questions are open-ended and are great for asking “why”. Use them less
often as they are fatiguing for respondents and subject to interpretation bias.
 Quantitative questions are closed- ended. These are far less fatiguing and easy to
measure (can be multiple or single choice, yes or no, rating scales, etc)

 Offer mutually exclusive answer options- when using a range, whether it be a date, age,
income, etc.) make sure your ranges are exclusive and that there is no overlap

 Use balanced scales- each point should hold the same amount of weight with the same
number of options on either side of the middle point so as not to skew the data (e.g.
satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied)
 DON’TS IN CRAFTING SURVEY
QUESTIONS
Don’ts
X Be fatiguing
o Limit the number of qualitative questions to 2
o Limit length of interview up to 10-15 min only

X Ask sensitive questions

o Personal questions can be uncomfortable to answer. Give respondents the
option to opt out of these (e.g. allow refused)

X Use double-barreled questions

o Combining two questions into one confuses respondents and impacts data
quality. Example: “How satisfied are you with our buffet food and drink
selection?”

X Use leading questions

o Do not encouraging respondents to answer in a certain way and compromise
survey results. Example: “Do you think the school should cut the gym budget to
pay for private coaches?” 
 PRE-FIELDWORK: SAMPLING
PREPARATION
Once area of coverage is confirmed with the principal, need to:
1. Get data on registered voters data in the area
o If coverage is district, get the registered voters data by municipality
o If coverage is municipality, get the registered voters data by barangay
2. Decide on the appropriate margin of error (MOE). Usually 3% MOE is acceptable
for political surveys.
3. Compute for sample size using the desired margin of error using Slovin’s formula:

n: sample size
N: population size
e: desired margin of error
4. Distribute total sample size computed in Step 3 proportional to distribution of
registered voters in each area segment (e.g by municipality if covering district or
by brgy if covering municipality). Round off sample sizes to nearest whole
numbers.
 EXAMPLE: SAMPLING FOR
MUNICIPALITY
1. Get this data X 2. Decide on the MOE.
In this case, 3%

Sample Size
Brgy Reg Voters % Share
(at 3% MOE)
Brgy 1 2,400 10% 101
Brgy 2 1,705 7% 72
Brgy 3 1,499 6% 63 4. Distribute
Brgy 4 1,449 6% 61
sample to each
Brgy 5 1,315 5% 55
barangay
Brgy 6 1,153 5% 49
proportionally
Brgy 7 v 1,118 5% 47
based on %
Brgy 8 1,094 4% 46
Brgy 9 1,093 4% 46
share of voters
Brgy 10 1,084 4% 46
Brgy 11 1,062 4% 45
Brgy 12 1,061 4% 45
Brgy 13 991 4% 42
Brgy 14 928 4% 39
Brgy 15 891 4% 38 3. Compute for
TOTAL 18,843 100% 1,049 total sample
using Slovin’s
formula*

*As a general rule, can just use 1,200 as sample size

when doing 3% MOE
 PRE-FIELDWORK: BRIEFING AND
TRAINING
Do’s
Prepare well for your briefing:

o Allot ample time for briefing (2-3 hours including mock interview or “time-in-motion” exercise)
o Ensure completeness of fieldwork materials for each briefing participant before the time of
briefing
o Ask each pollster to sign the attendance sheet with their names and contact numbers.

Have the objective to train and improve the data collection process and not to merely
cascade information during the briefing:

o Orient the pollsters on the objective and the importance of the project
o Go through each question, instruction, and expectations on the kind of answers we are looking
for, so pollsters can understand how to properly conduct the interviews
• Cite actual examples of answers
• Cite actual examples of probing points
o Spot issues on the questionnaire so it can be revised prior to actual fieldwork
o Conduct mock interview for pollsters to be familiarized with the questionnaire and to gauge
length of interview
 GENERAL FLOW OF
BRIEFING/TRAINING

Fieldwork
Protocols Mock
Introduction Objective and Questionnaire
• How to Build Interview/ General
and Getting to Importance of Rapport w/ Familiarizatio
Time-In- Reminders
Know the Study Respondents n
• How to do Actual Motion
Fieldwork
FIELDWORK COVERAGE PROTOCOLS

Approach TARGET Look for TARGET

HOUSEHOLD RESPONDENT
Start at brgy hall
using standard gapping (male if odd,
(5 for urban, 2 for rural) female if even)

If multiple target Proceed to NEXT

respondents, choose HOUSEHOLD using
one with LAST standard gapping
BIRTHDAY (5 for urban, 2 for rural)
 POST-FIELDWORK: DATA ENCODING &
CLEANING
While Fieldwork is ongoing, can already prepare the Data Entry Template. This is an
excel file which contains allocated columns for each item or variable in the
questionnaire where encoders will plug in answers of every respondent.
Example below:
 POST-FIELDWORK: REPORT
PREPARATION
Once all the needed data tables are processed, one may proceed with
charting and report-preparation
Notes in Report Preparation
1. Decide on the appropriate charts to use:

Pie Chart: To represent Bar Charts: To compare Frequency Tables: To

components or parts of a magnitudes highlight values themselves
whole (adding up to 100%)
SAMPLE CHARTS

O NLY
DATA
P LE
SAM
 POST-FIELDWORK: REPORT
PREPARATION
Notes in Report Preparation

2. In writing the analysis, aside from putting merely descriptions, it is helpful

to fully understand the objective and the context of the study to be able to
provide meaningful insights.

3. Aside from the report in word document, prepare a short ppt presentation
summarizing key findings and recommendations.
 TIMELINES
Standard report ready 4 days after receipt of quality-checked encoded data

Days 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Alignment with Principal

Questionnaire Design

Set-Up (i.e. briefing, FW

materials preps, etc)

Fieldwork

QC and Data Encoding

Data Cleaning and

Processing

Report Preparation