The poll was carried out by Encuestas & Estudios Consulting Group, a subsidiary of Gallup International.  Encuestas & Estudios has the 9002 certification from the International Standards Organization.

Encuestas & Estudios has the database of the 2001 population census. Every year the firm updates this information allowing the company to make accurate future projections for each category.  Encuestas & Estudios also has a Geographic Information System which was updated in 2007.

The population under study was residents of the municipalities of Sucre and Potosi, 18 years and older.

The poll was conducted using the cluster sampling method.  In this technique, the total population is divided into groups (or clusters) that represent geographic conglomerates.  The sample units were obtained by randomly plotting several districts (or Primary Sample Units - PSU) from the clusters. Within each district, Secondary Sample Units (SSU), or district zones were randomly selected.  Thirty-five SSUs were selected in each municipality and 10 households were polled in each SSU.  Each household was selected with equal probability.

The polling company established a pre-determined amount of respondents by age group and sex to match the municipalities’ demographic data.  Therefore, each interviewer had a quota of respondents according to the sample table below.  To select the respondent, the interviewer used the last birthday method.  If the age and gender quota for that person had already been filled, the interviewer used the same methodology with the remaining people in the household until she found a person whose gender and demographic quota was still open.  If no one on a given household matched the interviewer’s available quotas, the interviewer went to the next third house until she found a respondent whose quota had not been filled.  This methodology assured that the sample matched exactly with the municipality’s demographic and gender break down.

The polling company interviewed 350 persons in each municipality according to the socio-economic and demographic brackets of each municipality.  The margin of error is 5.8 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

Demographic Breakdown