Election 2010 Direct-Mail Analysis

It's been a long-time nonprofit practice to mail a questionnaire to sample, and undoubtedly sway, public opinion, while also bringing in some money. Republican Party organizations used to excel at this sort of thing, but they got a lot of bad publicity this spring by using the word "Census" on an envelope that resembled the U.S. Census mailing that was then showing up in people's mailboxes. Following the passage of restrictive legislation by Congress, subsequent efforts were instead labeled as a "referendum," "poll" or "survey."