Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Polling In Impossible Conditions: Pre-Election Polling In New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina, Brian J. Brox, J Celeste Lay

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Just months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, New Orleans held a mayoral election. With so many displaced residents, it was difficult to gauge attitudes, but there are perhaps few more important situations in which the public’s attitudes need to be examined. This paper examines the methodological challenges with survey research in the aftermath of a natural disaster. We conducted a traditional survey just days before the election and attempted to correct for our inability to reach particular segments of the population through post-stratification weights. The results of our poll were relatively accurate for all of the candidates but one – …