NORC early voting poll results

Dear Colleagues:

NORC at the University of Chicago is conducting a public opinion poll in two regions of the country to provide a snapshot of the voter experience during the 2008 presidential election.  As part of this study, we have been conducting a telephone sample survey from a list of people in Franklin County Ohio who requested early voting.  Over the last two days we have contacted a number of the people in our sample, and we have some preliminary information to share.  The following are observations we have from those voters that decided to vote absentee by mail.

This was the first time many of these people voted absentee.

They chose to vote this way to avoid expected long lines at polling locations.

They were not choosing to vote absentee because they wanted to avoid using electronic voting machines, even though most had seen media reports criticizing electronic voting.

Overall, these absentee voters were satisfied with the voting process, and they believe that their vote will be counted accurately.

These are preliminary results, and NORC will have a full analysis of voter experience, both early and Election Day voting, posted to the website http://www.norc.org/voter later this week.