Post #23 – vote compass summary 2013 election

Now I’ve already written a post on what I think about vote compass and its bias. I also published the evidence they provided to say it is not biased – although some of that really helped my argument a lot!

However, biased or not, vote compass has been an interesting tool this election. I know some of my students have made use of it to decide their preferences and help them see where they line up with the major parties.

The article below details some of the findings of the 1 million + results obtained from vote compass.

One of the interesting ones to me was the fact that none of the major leaders ranked higher than 4 out of 10! Disillusioned public much?

I also found the fact that half of labors voters disagree with their asylum seeker policy unsurprising…interesting though. The majority support for gay marriage was also not a surprise although the overwhelming figures supporting legal euthanasia was. I think this is where bias in samples may start to play a role.

#16 says 61% of Australians want more done for climate change but liberal has just announced a cut to that department? Smart thinking leaving that one to the end of the election then.

There are a few other interesting tidbits in the summary article, available here.

Included here is a news.com article highlighting the coalition spending plan and a link to their full costings. Foreign aid copped a hammering, we are one of the strongest economies in the world – at what point do we as a nation say to liberal that cutting this is not okay? Apparently….never….. Click here.

Mel

Post #22 – I hit a nerve with ABC!

Oops, seems I hit a nerve with ABC with that last blog post. Since posting it, the head of the analytics sent me a tweet and ABC has posted two clarifications of how their sampling is adjusted for bias.

The detailed explanation is available here: PDF file.

The ABC also say this via twitter:

So what have we learnt from this? Question all sources, even what your teachers say 🙂 which is exactly what I have been teaching you!

I do feel some of my points remain with an element of truth however. It is an online poll (not phone based like the ones the parties rely on), it is advertised and promoted via ABC (which not everyone accesses) and there must be a fair number of people who lie or who change their answers simply to see what happens.

I wonder if all this would make vote compass more reliable than the galaxy polls then? Ooooh controversy! I doubt it though, hence why you don’t really see the parties responding to it (so far….)

As a data collection tool it is fascinating however.

Mel

Post #21 – vote compass

I said it right at the start – vote compass would provide some fascinating data. Remember though, how reliable is it? Some would argue it is more reliable than a poll because it encompasses a greater number BUT what are the demographics of that number? Does it represent the elderly? Does it represent those on mine sites who may not have access to the net? How many people have done it multiple times or mucked about with their answers to see if they can skew results?

Link here for some data analysis from
vote compass, including the figures on gay marriage and abortion…..

Addition to this post –

After posting this on twitter I received a contact from the head analytical dude for vote compass who let me know this:

So there you go students, that’s some of the bias questions addressed! Gotta love social media.

Mel