Indigenous journalists question the accuracy of poll reported by some media organizations
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Indigenous journalists are calling on news organizations to more accurately report on Indigenous people after some in the media, including one major network, reported that almost two-thirds of Native Americans voted for Donald Trump in the recent election.
The number of American Indian voters surveyed by Edison Research was too small to be representative, said the Indigenous Journalists Association, or IJA.
An executive with Edison said while small, the sample size met criteria set by major news organizations.
“This data point from our survey should not be taken as a definitive word on the American Indian vote,” said Rob Farbman, the pollster’s executive vice president.
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The 900-member IJA is a nonprofit organization supporting Indigenous peoples working in journalism, according to its website.
The exit poll conducted by Edison Research showed 65 percent of American Indians voted for Trump. NBC News was among the news organizations that circulated the data point. NBC News has not commented on the story.
“This poll is highly misleading and irresponsible — American Indians only represent 1 percent of the total voters surveyed, meaning that a few hundred self-identifying respondents are being used to represent the diverse interests of millions of Indigenous people across the country. None of the exit poll locations, for example, were on tribal land,” according to a Nov. 13 IJA statement.
Farbman of Edison Research confirmed voters were allowed to self-identify, but did not respond to a question about whether the polling was conducted on tribal land.
The pollster explained the poll was created for the National Election Pool, a group of television networks including ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN and that almost 30,000 known voters in Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio were surveyed. The potential sampling error on the “Native American subgroup” was plus or minus 9 points.
‘This kind of research requires more than just methods’
There are significant challenges when polling Native American voters nationwide.
Stephen Nuño-Perez is a professor of politics and International Studies at Northern Arizona University and part of a team which conducted the American Electorate Voter Poll, a nationwide preelection survey which included Native American voters.
Nuño-Perez said he’s been studying Native American voters with fellow researchers at UCLA and the University of New Mexico for the past 10 years.
The results of the poll showed that 57 percent of Native Americans voted for Harris and 39 percent favored Trump. Voters were randomly selected for telephone interviews, text messages, emails and online panels.
That poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 points.
He explained the sample for their recent poll was also small. That poll included 500 Native American voters from the key states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
He said challenges of polling Native American voters are like those for polling voters from minority communities.
“The population is small, diverse with some acute characteristics in both dispersion and segregation. That makes it difficult from an operational standpoint,” Nuño-Perez said.
In other words, Native American voters are spread across country and live in communities where they are the majority.
Nuño-Perez said over time he and fellow researchers have learned that it’s important to work with “trusted partners” who have experience in working with Native American voters.
“This kind of research requires more than just methods, it requires some community-building, as well.”
Targeting polls
Another national Native American organization is looking for alternatives to the current exit polling data.
The Seattle-based National Urban Indian Family Coalition, or NUIFC, has been working on voter engagement for the past several years. Through an initiative called “Democracy is Indigenous,” NUIFC works with community partners in 22 cities with urban Native communities, including Minneapolis.
That initiative examines how data is gathered every 10 years for the national Census to strengthen the idea that Native Americans represent “statistically significant” populations.
Janeen Comenote, executive director of the NUIFC, said polls must include areas of the country with large Native American communities, including cities. “A majority of Native people live west of the Mississippi. We didn't feel that [the Edison Research poll] was a representative sample of our community,” Comenote said.
To better assess the Indigenous vote, NUIFC has created a survey to look at the last election.
That survey will close this week. Comenote said she hopes to have collected data from Native American voters with “a larger sample size spread across a wider geography.”
Editor's note: Melissa Olson is a member of the Indigenous Journalists Association.