Thursday, March 15, 2012

New Quinnipiac Poll

Quinnipiac University released the results of a new poll on Gov. Corbett and some of his policies, as well as on some current legislation.  Corbett's favorable / unfavorable is an even 41/41.  Here are a few specifics from the poll.

Pennsylvania voters disapprove 49 - 36 percent of the way Corbett is handling the state budget and disapprove 53 - 27 percent of the way he is handling funding for the state's public universities. Men disapprove of his handling of university funding 49 - 35 percent while women disapprove 56 - 21 percent.


And

There is a reverse gender gap as voters oppose 48 - 42 percent legislation that would require a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound at least 24 hours before the procedure. Men oppose the measure 51 - 39 percent, while women are divided 45 - 45 percent. Voters with a college degree are opposed 57 - 35 percent while voters without a degree are divided 45 - 44 percent.


The poll provides cross tabs so you can see the breakdown by various demographic factors as well as political party.  One thing that jumped out at me was the odd age ranges, 18-49, 50-64, and 65+.  That first category is a fairly large one.  The poll had a link to a demographic survey of those who participated in the poll.  I noted that only 331 of the 1256 people called were under 50.  To me that really skews the results.  There were also more women polled than men, 674-582.  It's always interesting to look at this sort of detail.  Would the results of the poll have been different if more women of childbearing age were included?  Or more people in the traditional college student age range?  Regardless, the poll provides some thought-provoking data.

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