|
WASHINGTON: Record numbers of American voters are keenly following
the campaign for the White House, auguring for a much higher than
usual turnout in November, the Pew Research think-tank said
Thursday.
“Turnout is likely to be higher this
fall—perhaps much higher than in previous elections—as voter
interest continues at record levels,” Pew said in a statement
posted on its website.
And with more Democrats turning out to vote in
the primaries than Republicans, the spike in interest was likely to
work in favor of Barack Obama’s Democratic Party, Pew said.
“Strong and consistent interest and engagement
suggests that voter turnout will likely be high in November, as it
was during this year’s primaries . . . Democratic turnout could
match or perhaps exceed Republican participation in November, just
as it did in most states during the primaries,” Pew said.
Seventy-two percent of the 2,004 Americans
surveyed last month by the Pew Research Center for the People and
the Press said they are giving “a lot of thought” to the
election.
That is “by far the highest percentage at this
point in the campaign since 1988,” exceeding enthusiasm levels
than during the five previous presidential campaigns, Pew wrote.
Seventy-seven percent of Democrats, or 18
percentage points more than in the same month four years ago, said
they were giving a great deal of thought to the election, the Pew
poll showed.
“Republican engagement also has increased over
this period [from 61 percent to 72 percent], but for the first time
somewhat fewer GOP voters than Democrats say they are giving a lot
of thought to the election,” Pew said.
According to the poll, Obama was leading his
Republican rival for the White House, John McCain by 48 percent to
40 percent, and the presumed Democratic candidate’s backers showed
greater commitment to him than Republican voters did to McCain.
“Most voters who say they support Obama—28
percent out of the 48 percent—say they support him strongly. By
contrast, only about a third of McCain’s backers say they support
him strongly [14 percent of 40 percent],” the Washington-based
think-tank said.
On the key election issue of the floundering
economy, 51 percent of voters said they consider Obama better able
than McCain (31 percent) to improve economic conditions.
McCain came out on top on another key issue, the
Iraq war: 47 percent said the Republican candidate would be better
placed to make sound decisions on Iraq than Obama, whose
decision-making had the backing of 41 percent.
The poll also showed that more independents are
still sitting on the fence than in June 2004, when President George
W. Bush was running for re-election against Democratic contender
John Kerry.
Nearly half of independents in this year’s
election—46 percent—said they were undecided or may change their
minds, compared with 28 percent in 2004.
They could be swayed to Obama’s side: the
Democrat had a strong lead over McCain in convincing voters to elect
him, the poll showed.
A majority of voters—55 percent—gave Obama a
grade of A or B for convincing them to vote for him, while less than
a third—32 percent—gave McCain similar marks.
Obama’s “grade” for winning over voters
was better than for any candidate, Democratic or Republican, in the
past three campaigns.
|
