Vt. exit polls: Economy tops concerns
Toolbox
By Dave Gram Associated Press - Published: November 5, 2008
MONTPELIER — Economic worries were tops in the mind of Vermont voters who chose Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in Tuesday's presidential election, Associated Press exit poll results showed.
"Obviously it's the economy," said Melissa D'Amico, 31-year-old manager of a Montpelier restaurant, said just after voting Tuesday. "I have a good job and I'm still having trouble making ends meet." She said she'd like to buy a house, but hadn't been able to yet, and had no health insurance.
More than half of those responding to the exit poll rated the economy as their top concern, with fewer than two in 10 choosing energy and the war in Iraq and fewer than one in 10 choosing health care or terrorism.
In response to a separate question, more than nine in 10 respondents said they were worried about the economy, with two-thirds saying they were "very" worried.
Animosity toward president President Bush in the only state he never visited while president appears to have grown. More than eight in 10 Vermonters disapproved of the job Bush has been doing, up from seven in 10 in 2006 and six in 10 in 2004.
Democrats often enjoy more support from women in Vermont than from men, and Tuesday's voting appeared to keep with that pattern. Some seven in 10 women supported Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain; six in 10 Vermont men did so, the exit polling showed.
Obama's victory in Vermont was not unexpected; the state long has ranked as among the most liberal and Democratic-leaning in the country. In Tuesday's exit poll, more than a third of Vermont respondents described themselves as liberal; just one in five did so nationally.
Early exit poll results were unclear on whether Gov. Jim Douglas would achieve the 50 percent plus one vote needed to keep the election from going to the Legislature. Some things were clear from the data though:
The poll asked respondents whether they were conservative, moderate or liberal, and of those saying they were liberal, nearly half went for Pollina while just a third went for Symington.
Douglas has faced some of the most sustained criticism directed at him over energy issues, including his support for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and his opposition to large-scale wind power.
Among the small minority of voters — fewer than two in 10 — who said energy was their most important issue, Douglas drew support from just a quarter of them.
The exit poll of 850 Vermont voters was conducted for AP by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International in a random sample of 15 precincts statewide Tuesday. The survey did not cover those who voted before Election Day in Vermont; their vote preference and answers to other survey questions may have differed from those interviewed. Exit poll results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, higher for subgroups.
On the Net: Methodology details: http://surveys.ap.org/exitpolls/
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