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The 2012 Aiken County Exit Poll: Overview of Key Findings. Performed by USCA Research Methods class Professor Bob Botsch , Director Erin McCulloch, Research Assistant. Gimme Shelter! I built that! Beech Island Community Center. Methodology. N = 753 Sample design:
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The 2012 Aiken County Exit Poll:Overview of Key Findings Performed by USCA Research Methods class Professor Bob Botsch, Director Erin McCulloch, Research Assistant
Methodology • N = 753 • Sample design: • 10 representative precincts • Stratified by gender, region of county. Precinct size • Systematic sampling • Two time clusters • Response rate: 70% • Sample error: +/- 4% • Successfully matched presidential vote • Romney: actual 63%; sample 60% • Obama: actual 36%; sample 37%
2012 Vote by Party: an exercise in party loyalty—GOP advantage: 51%/33%
Distant Hints of Change: Groups of Voters Trending Toward Democrats
Tea Party Suppt: Drop from 2010 (43% to 30%) & Generally to the Far Right
Obama Independent Vote Depressed by White Independents—Ethnicity!
Ethnic Antipathy Score (Blacks too much power; Muslim; Conf Flag—4 pt scale) Predicts Vote Among Whites
Dramatic Increase in White Voter Ethnic-Antipathy Scores since 2008
Conclusions • County heavily GOP • Some warning signs for the future • Young/single/in-migrants less GOP • More socially moderate • Tea Party support decline from 2010 (-13 % points) • Tea Party Republicans quite different across range of issues/attitudes/identities • indepndts closer to Dem’s—should vote more Dem (?) • Obama hurt by white independent voters • Republicans more likely to see people as lazy and Democrats to see people as wanting to work • Ethnic antipathy a major factor—as important as party (and intertwined with party) • Increasing racial polarization—dramatic increases in ethnic antipathy since 2008 • Gender Gap small in Aiken Co, but Marriage Gap huge