Methodology, Resident Outreach and Engagement
Hill Research Consultants designed and implemented the survey and analyzed the findings of the County’s twelfth such survey since 2006 by this research team.
Using a current list and demographic profile of Douglas County registered voters as the sample survey baseline, 1,124 residents participated in the survey from March 5 -13, 2023. The results reported to commissioners were based on 760 interviews of voters with full demographic information that could be matched to official voter rolls. Interviews were conducted – 286 by phone (majority via cell phone)) and 474 online (41% invited and 21% open link).
Hill stated that while 364 additional interviews were conducted online, they were not included in the final tabulations reported because of missing demographic data, however, the results of those interviews were not significantly nor statistically different than others, except that the respondents were much more likely to use digital media.
The survey methodology used is state-of-the-art, hybrid multi-mode data collection, allowing for results to be weighted to match the Douglas County voter file for gender, age, party, and geographic distributions. The findings have a margin of error of +\- 4%.
Douglas County residents were invited to participate in the survey through multiple means. More than 11,749 subscribers to the County’s online newsroom were invited to participate via a link directly to the survey the day the survey opened on March 5. Additionally, the link was posted on the County’s Facebook (8,700 followers), Twitter (13,500 followers), and Nextdoor (110,097 households, 194,327 members) social media sites. Access to the survey was provided via a digital ad featured on all Douglas County Colorado Community Media (CCM) newspaper web pages within the CCM website March 6-13, and content-directing survey participation was featured on the County’s website homepage March 6-12.
