During the 1936 presidential election between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alf Landon, the Literary Digest received 2.3 million mail-in ballots that it used to predict the results: a landslide in favor of Landon. Clearly, there has never been a President Landon, so the prediction was incorrect. Why?
A)A sample taken only from Literary Digest readers would not necessarily represent the views of the American public in general.
B)The survey relied on voluntary responses, which would introduce a bias.
C)The survey was subject to nonresponse bias.
D)All of the answer options are correct.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

All of the answer options are correct. The sample was taken only from Literary Digest readers, which is not representative of the American public in general (A). Additionally, the survey relied on voluntary responses from those who chose to send in their ballots, introducing potential bias (B). Finally, nonresponse bias is also a possibility since not all Literary Digest readers may have chosen to participate in the survey (C).

During the 1936 Presidential Election Between Franklin D