Which informal poll is nonrandom and often used to gauge opinions without formal procedures?

• A. Public opinion
• B. Push poll
• C. Ballot fatigue
• D. Straw poll

Answer: (D)

Straw polls are informal polls used to gauge opinions quickly without formal procedures. They’re nonrandom because participants aren’t selected through a scientific sampling method; instead, they rely on convenience samples such as event attendees, online readers, or self-selected respondents. Because of this, the results don’t generalize to the broader population, but they can give a quick read on which way opinions are leaning or how people react to a topic. This contrasts with true public opinion research, which uses carefully designed surveys with random sampling to produce generalizable results. A push poll is aiming to influence opinions by using biased or loaded questions, not to measure true sentiment. Ballot fatigue refers to voters skipping questions toward the end of a ballot, a behavior phenomenon, not a polling method. So the informal, nonrandom method used to gauge opinions without formal procedures is straw poll.