Arianna Casey is trying to select a sample of registered voters in Hoops County to see how they intend to vote on funding a stadium for the local professional basketball team. She has determined that a sample of 1,000 voters will be necessary to provide an acceptable minimum level of sampling risk (15 percent). The state has more than 3 million registered voters who are listed (sorted by zip code) in an electronic data file maintained in the state commissioner’s office. The commissioner has agreed to allow Casey to have access to this data file for her project.

Required:
a. What is sampling risk? What steps can Casey take to control her exposure to sampling risk?
b. How would she define the population in this case?
c. What are some potential methods of selecting the sample (as specifically applied to this application)?
d. What precautions should Casey take to ensure that she selects a representative sample?