Bradley In Dead Heat With Gore In NH, Poll Shows

Updated 11:03 AM ET September 5, 1999

BOSTON (Reuters) - Bill Bradley is in a statistical dead heat with Vice President Al Gore in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in the key primary state of New Hampshire, a poll released Sunday by the Boston Globe and WBZ-TV found.

"The Democratic primary race really appears to be a race that could go either way," Gerry Chervinsky, president of KRC Communications, which conducted the survey of 800 likely voters, told the Globe.

Among those surveyed between Aug. 27 and Aug. 31, Gore led Bradley, the retired New Jersey senator, by 40 percent to 36 percent -- a statistical tie because the poll's margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points, the Globe said.

Other recent surveys showed Gore with a larger, albeit shrinking, lead over his only Democratic challenger for the party's presidential nomination.

Discussion Questions

  1. How many samples were taken?
  2. Was the sample a random sample? That is, is it reasonable to expect that it is somewhat representative of Democratic voters in New Hampshire?
  3. In the phrase " Gore led Bradley … by 40 percent to 36 percent", to what do 40% and 36% refer?
  4. What do they mean by "the poll's margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points"?

Assignment for Monday, September 13

Find two newspaper articles that report a polls or a survey. Ask, and answer, questions 1-3 for each polls or surveys. Answer question 4 if the article reports a margin of error.

Turn in: