Survey by Rachel Christensen and McKinzey Wickel

1. Religion and the Election Survey by Rachel Christensen and McKinzey Wickel

2. Purpose of Survey We wanted to find out if religion would affect the votes of the high school students if they were eligible to vote, and if a presidential candidate was a Mormon, how it would effect their vote.

3. Sampling Procedure Population:All students at Juab High School Selecting our Sample: Cluster Sample – We used a cluster sample for our survey. We got a list of all of the English classes and organized the classes into grades in sequential order (class hours from first to fifth) and alphabetical order (A or B day). Then we used a Stratified Random Sample (SRS) to select one class from each grade. We numbered each class from each grade separately starting with 1 to however many classes there were for that grade. We used the calculator random integer button to determine which one would be picked for each grade. We used a stratified random sample (SRS) again to determine what survey the class would receive. The classes were labeled 1 to 4 starting with freshman (1) to seniors (4). We used the random integer button on the calculator giving the first number chosen by the calculator Survey A, the second number Survey B, the third number Survey A, and the fourth number Survey B. Making our survey bias: We wanted to see if by wording the question “to be a knowledgeable and responsible voter” we could sway the majority to vote according to the candidate’s political platform rather than their religious affiliation. We wanted our subjects to vote “NO” to our question.

4. Survey Artifact Biased Question • Answer if you were eligible to be a knowledgeable and responsible voter in the presidential election. Does the candidate’s religious affiliation affect your vote? ____ YES ____ NO Unbiased Question • Answer as if you were eligible to vote in the presidential election. Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a presidential candidate if they were Mormon? ____ More likely ____ Less likely ____ Doesn’t affect

5. Biased Survey Results

6. Unbiased Survey Results

7. Analysis Unbiased: Out of the 38 students to receive the unbiased question, 16 (42.1%) answered doesn’t affect, 4 (10.5%) answered less likely, and 12 (31.6%) answered more likely. There were 6 (15.8%) non-response. For our unbiased survey, we expected the results favor more likely since we live in predominately Mormon community. More likely was chosen more frequently than less likely, but the highest selected answer was doesn’t affect. Biased: Out of the 41 students to receive the biased question, 20 (48.8%) answered no, 16 (39%) answered yes, and 5 (12.2%) were non-response. For our biased survey, we wanted the results to favor “no,” which ended up happening, but not by the margin we expected. We wanted there to be a bigger gap between the “yes” and “no” response. This question wasn’t as biased as we thought it was going to be and would probably work better on a national level.

8. Survey Issues • One of our biggest issues was the nonresponse rate of 11/72 (15%) due to the students not being in class the day we gave the survey. • Another issue was the under-coverage of seniors because not all seniors take English since it’s not required. We also underrepresented the students taking online English classes opposed to the normal classroom setting. • Being in Utah the results were skewed compared to a national level because of the dominant religion.