With the VCS techniques, you will obtain a sample that is generally representative of your selected voters. Even with all these efforts, you may wish to do some .weighting.. VCS has developed the best set of cross tabs available for sample analysis. Each VCS sample is accompanied by two of these profiles, one profile of the sample and the other of the base universe selected, for side-by-side comparison.
Each (base/sample) profile provides a Total count, as well as other demographic data; age/registration ranges, limited ethnicity, party, gender, and phone counts. Each of these categories are cross-tabbed with the most recent vote history on file. If the area to be polled is a large area, the cross-tabs include counts at the county level to give you a geographic break.
The .Base. profile provides overall count of the selection criteria. In order to determine weights, it is necessary to understand how your sample compares to your universe on a number of key characteristics. These numbers, when compared with the .Sample. profile will help you determine if your sample needs to be .weighted..
VCS can easily customize the columns in each of the two profiles. Each of these reports are provided in 3 different output formats; Adobe Acrobat (pdf), and Comma-Delimited (csv), Excel (xls) spreadsheet which can be manipulated..
