WTAMU Professor Seeks Help with Exit Polls

    /24-7PressRelease/ - CANYON, TX, October 29, 2006 — Dr. Dave Rausch is a psephologist, and he needs help.
A psephologist is a person who studies current elections, and Rausch, associate professor of political science at West Texas A&M University, is doing just that.

"I think the Nov. 7 election would be an interesting one on which to collect data," he said. "I've decided to run an online exit poll and need some help from the people in Potter and Randall counties."

An exit poll is a survey of sorts taken soon after selected voters leave their voting place. This type of poll differs from an opinion poll by asking who the voter actually voted for. Rausch is asking voters to visit his web site at http://www.wtamu.edu/~jrausch. The site will have a series of exit poll links with different surveys for Randall and Potter counties, Amarillo, Canyon and for people outside of Randall and Potter counties. The surveys will include questions about property tax freeze initiatives and the changes to the Amarillo City Commissionas well as questions about the Texas gubernatorial elections.

"The links will be active the first day of early voting on Oct. 23," Rausch said. "I don't expect to be able to tell who is winning before the election is over. I'm doing this largely to have data to analyze in my statistics classes and to learn more about who voted and for whom they voted."

Early voting runs Oct. 23-Nov. 3, and election day is Tuesday, Nov. 7. The ballot includes the candidates for the gubernatorial race as well as several state and local elections.

For more information about Rausch's exit polls, call 806-651-2423 or visit his web site at www.wtamu.edu/~jrausch.

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