Today's Star Tribune Minnesota Poll findings are based on interviews conducted Jan. 18-20 with 800 Minnesota registered voters via land line (70 percent) and cellphone (30 percent). The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc.

Results of a poll based on 800 interviews will vary by no more than 3.5 percentage points, plus or minus, from the overall population 95 times out of 100. Margins are larger for groups within the sample, such as Democrats and Republicans. Results for racial subgroups in this poll are based on 504 respondents (out of the 800) for which racial identification was recorded. The margin of sampling error for the group of black respondents is 16.9 percentage points, plus or minus.

The self-identified party affiliation of the respondents is 38 percent Democrats, 30 percent Republicans and 32 percent independents or other.

Sampling error does not take into account other sources of variation inherent in public opinion surveys, such as nonresponse, question wording or context effects. In addition, news events may have affected opinions during the period the poll was taken.

Readers can e-mail questions to djmcgrath@startribune.com.

Dennis J. McGrath