12100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 350 | Los Angeles, CA 90025 Phone: (310) 828-1183 | Fax: (310) 453-6562
1999 Harrison St., Suite 2020 | Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 451-9521 | Fax: (510) 451-0384
TO Isaac Whippy
City of Fort Bragg
FROM Curt Below & Dave Metz
FM3 Research
RE: Scope and Estimated Costs to Conduct 2024 Voter Survey DATE April 2, 2024
Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) is pleased to submit this short scope of work to conduct research assessing the viability of a potential November 2024 ballot measure.
Research
Population &
Sample
The City of Fort Bragg has roughly 3,000 total voters, and in communities of this size, we recommend including all voters in the potential sample universe. We will still have the ability to filter the results by those likely to participate in the November 2024 election, but casting this broader net will increase the number of completed interviews.
While it is difficult to predict in smaller communities, given our experience, we anticipate completing around 200-300 interviews if we conduct a standard dual-mode voter survey. (Though probably closer to 200.) This means conducting telephone and online interviews, sending email and text invitations to portions of the sample asking them to take the survey online while calling other voters.
One way to increase the number of interviews is to send out postcard invitations to all voters with unique IDs and a link to the online. After those postcard invitations are sent out, we would then proceed with out standard dual-mode approach of telephone interviews and email/online invitations. This will likely push the total number of completes closer to 300.
Research
Methodology
Dual-mode voter survey
Data Collection
Mode
Telephone and online/mobile interviews
Respondent
Contact Method
Telephone calls, email invitations, and text invitations (optional postcard invitations)
Margin of
Sampling Error*
±6.9% for a sample of 200 interviews
±5.7% for a sample of 300 interviews
*At the 95% confidence level (i.e., in 95 out of 100 cases) Questionnaire Surveys of this nature typically run 20 minutes long.
Language With approximately 16% of your local voters Latino—and 3% having requested ballot materials from the County in Spanish—we think you may wish to consider offering telephone interviews in Spanish. We will provide that as a cost option.
Deliverables Following the completion of the survey, we will provide:
• A complete analysis of survey results in PowerPoint
• A presentation of the survey results
FM3 will also be available for ongoing consultation and any further analysis of the research.
Cost Figure 1 contains the total estimated—and discounted—costs for this research, assuming English-only and no post cards. These prices are comprehensive and include all costs for questionnaire design; sample acquisition and preparation; programming; email and text invitations; survey hosting; telephone interviewing; data entry and analysis; and reporting.
While we would strive for 300 interviews, we have included costs for 200 interviews, and the costs would scale proportionately.
Figure 1: Estimated Dual-mode Survey Costs
Survey Length
Number of Interviews
200 300
20 minutes $22,250 $26,000
• Offering telephone interviews in Spanish would cost an additional $2,500 • Sending out postcard invitations to all voters as an additional contact method would cost an additional $4,000.
So, if we conduct this research with Spanish telephone interviews as an option, send postcard invitations to all voters, and complete 300 interviews, the total cost would be $32,500.
We would welcome the opportunity to work with you on this research, and if you have any questions or if there is any further information we can provide, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your consideration and you may reach us as follows:
Curt Below
Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3)
1999 Harrison Street, Suite 2020
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 451-9521 (Office)
[email protected]
Dave Metz
Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3)
1999 Harrison Street, Suite 2020
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 451-9521 (Office)
[email protected]