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Examiner straw poll for Tampa Bay
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Examiners from major cities across the country conducted a straw poll of voters to better understand their habits leading up to Election Day. Respondents were randomly selected to participate and asked a series of questions listed below.
»Results of the Examiner nationwide straw poll
Question 1: Have you been polled before today on election issues?
| Yes | No |
| 4 (2 men, 2 women) | 16 (6 men, 10 women) |
Question 2: On Election Day, did you vote for the same candidates that you intended to vote for prior to arriving at the polling location?
| Yes | No |
| 18(8 men, 10 women) | 2 (2 women) |
Question 3: What was the single most important issue to you in this election that affected how you voted? Generally, the economy, taxes, security.
SUMMARY:
Everyone spoken to was willing, even anxious, to express his or her opinion; all seemed to be excited by the election and their participation. The results may have been skewed by two factors. First, in Hillsborough County there had been an extraordinary amount of early voting over the past week. The Elections Supervisor’s office had estimated that between 30% and 50% of eligible registered voters had cast votes before November 4th. Those persons, perhaps with the strongest views may, therefore, have been absent from the polling place on Tuesday. Second, and this may partially explain two of the responses regarding single most important issue as “morality” and “decency”, the Florida ballot included a proposed Constitutional amendment widely promoted as one preventing homosexual marriage or civil unions.
With this in mind, the most common “single” reason for the individual decisions was the economy; 3 men and 4 women choose this reason. When asked if they would expand on this and say who would be best for the economy, all answered Obama. The next most common single issue was the fear of increased taxes (2 men, 3 women). The respondents who indicated last-minute shifts in opinions were 2 women answering that taxes were a vital concern to them and that issue was one on which they had changed their mind this morning on the way to the polls. Four people stated that national security was the most important issue (2 men, 2 women) and the war in Iraq, specifically, was given by 3 (1 man, 2 women) and 1 woman just answered, age.
Most of the people with whom I spoke made a point of their dislike of “attack ads”. I found it interesting that no one mentioned Governor Palin, either favorably or unfavorably. What was not surprising is that no one mentioned Senator Obama being black.
I was also surprised that there was no mention of other heavily publicized issues, such as health care and the relative degree of "experience" of the major candidates
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