offers a very different view of surveys. Aware of the potential abuses of surveys, Verba, nonetheless, insists that they can promote democracy. Consider, Verba tells us, the difference between elections and surveys. Both are means of expressing the popular will. In elections, people vote and the most popular candidate wins. In polls, people express their will by answering questions administered in the survey; the results are tabulated and the most popular response is noted as such. In elections, however, an unrepresentative sample participates. As we will see in later chapters, some people are more likely to vote than others. Therefore, the results of an election are skewed in favor of the opinions of the people most likely to vote. Elections do not truly reflect the people’s will. They reflect the voters’ will. However, a well-administered survey does not produce skewed results. Because the survey is administered to a random sample of people— with no group having a greater or lesser likelihood of participation than any other group—it reflects the will of the entire people. Therefore, surveys are more accurate reflections of the popular will than are elections.