UT Tyler Center for Opinion Research: January survey by the Dallas Morning News and UT Tyler
Center for Opinion Research
The Department of Political Science & History hosts the Center for Opinion Research, which includes a professional survey center with 25 work stations for students to learn about survey research by experiencing how the data is collected. The studies also contribute to published academic works to better understand Texas and the public’s perceptions about topics.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Recent Poll Results
The January survey by the Dallas Morning News and UT Tyler is the first poll that has studied the views of Texas voters during the 2022 election season. The survey also includes 1,082 registered voters to provide insights about the primary election and how the public views public policy.
Press Release | Results | Press Coverage |
Texas Survey – January 2022
(Registered Voter Report) |
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Methodology
The Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler Poll is a statewide random sample of 1,082 registered voters conducted between January 18-25. The mixed-mode sample includes 276 registered voters surveyed over the phone by the University of Texas at Tyler with support from ReconMR and 806 registered voters randomly selected from Dynata’s panel of online respondents. The margin of error for a sample of registered voters in Texas is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points, and the more conservative margin of sampling error that includes design effects from this poll is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for a 95% confidence interval. The online and phone surveys were conducted in English and Spanish. Using information from the 2020 Current Population Survey and Office of the Texas Secretary of State. The sample’s gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, metropolitan density and vote choice were matched to the population of registered voters in Texas.
Post-stratification weights were calculated for the random telephone sample and web sample separately to be representative of the Texas registered voter population, before the two weighted samples were combined into one standardized sample (see Elliott 2009). To balance sample demographics with the estimated gender, age, race/ethnicity, and education of registered voters in the state we use an iterated process known as raking. These parameters were derived from 2020 Current Population Survey to reflect Texas’s electorate. Also, to account for the influence of urbanization on voter registration the sample is also weighted to reflect the population density of the state using the counts of registered voters in all 254 counties based on data from the Texas Secretary of State. Election data from the Texas Secretary of State is also used to reflect voting patterns in the state. The use of these weights in statistical analysis ensures that the characteristics of the sample closely reflect the characteristics of registered voters in Texas. A second step uses weights from the probability phone sample to standardize the weights for the non-probability online sample to reduce sampling bias (see Elliott 2009).
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Archive of Past Studies