Political and Election Polls ARS Discontinued... "Only Telephone Interviews Will Be Conducted"

From now on, the automated response service (ARS) method will be eliminated in political and election opinion polls.

The Korea Association of Research Agencies (KORA), a corporation consisting of 34 domestic research institutions, announced on the 22nd the standards for political and election telephone opinion polls that include this content. This is the first time KORA has independently established and declared compliance with standards for political election telephone opinion polls.

The standards have been applied since the 21st to research institutions such as Matrix, Korea Gallup, Next Research, Research & Research, Embrain Public, and Korea Research, which are member companies of the association. They will comply with these standards when conducting and publishing results of opinion polls related to presidential approval ratings, ruling and opposition party support rates, and general election-related surveys.

Korea Research Association (KORA) Logo [Image Source: Provided by Korea Research Association]

Furthermore, the association has a policy not to allow the mixed use of telephone interviews and ARS. This is based on the judgment that ARS conducted through recorded voices or mechanical sounds is not a scientific survey method.

Also, when using virtual mobile phone numbers, the response rate for opinion polls must exceed at least 10%, and when using RDD (random digit dialing), it must exceed at least 7%. This reflects the fact that unlike virtual mobile phone numbers, which provide information such as the respondent's region, gender, and age group, RDD extracts only arbitrary numbers, making it relatively difficult to conduct surveys with matched sample sizes.

Survey results should be presented as integers rounded to the nearest whole number. The association explained, "Since sample survey results contain errors, indicating decimal points may give the impression that the survey is excessively precise."

It also includes the requirement to attempt calling respondents who are absent or on the phone at least three times, making every effort to obtain responses.

Chairman Jo Ilsang said, "I hope that the independently established standards for political election telephone opinion polls will serve as an opportunity to enhance the reliability of surveys," and urged, "We ask for cooperation from the political sphere and the media as well."