[italianquaker]

Harris surveyed 3,685 but for Bushs approval ratings they poll hundreds. Makes you go hmmmmmm, zogby special sauce?

[digger48]

They actually had to go more than a 20 mile radius from Manhattan to get THIS one.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm no expert, but I've got a background in basic statistics from engineering school. I believe the sample size varies depending on how many prospective choices there are in a poll. A president's approval rating usually falls into five categories (excellent, good, fair, poor, dismal), so a firm like Harris has to poll a sufficient number of people to get a statistically valid distribution across all five.

In a survey about the best state in which to live, there are 50 possible answers -- so the sample size would have to be much larger to get a similar distribution across all answers.