Tag Archives: polls

Following up on proposed California bill to legalize marijuana, Nate Silver notes that public opinion is now almost evenly divided on the issue. We all know that Michael Phelps was on something. But perhaps he was also onto something. Three recent polls show that Americans are more sympathetic to the idea of legalizing marijuana than ever before. The first poll, …

According to a new Harris Poll (PDF), Barack Obama is now the person most admired by Americans, pushing Jesus Christ into an inglorious second place. Respondents were allow to provide up to three names and those polled supplied their answers spontaneously; they were not given a list of names to choose from. Somehow Dubya, at #5, beat out God at …

Huffington Post is running a silly poll asking “Who’s The Hottest Congressional Freshman?” Among the candidates is openly gay Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO). Click the image if you’d like to vote.

Here’s the list of cities who consume the most and the least caffeine per resident. “The survey considered numerous caffeine sources, including coffee, tea, sodas, energy drinks, chocolate, pain relievers and caffeine pills.Considering caffeinated coffee consumption alone, it was no surprise that Seattle ranked No. 1 nationwide for the second consecutive year.” Most Caffeinated: 1. Tampa 2. Seattle 3. Chicago …

A Gallup poll shows Barack Obama as the most admired living American man. Hillary Clinton is the most admired living woman. A month before his inauguration, Americans choose Barack Obama as the man they admire most in the world, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. It’s the first time a president-elect has topped the annual survey in more than …

The latest poll of California voters reveals that education and income were the strongest factors in the Prop 8 vote. The new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California of 2,003 Californians who voted Nov. 4 found significantly less support for Prop. 8 among blacks than had been indicated by exit polls. Election Day exit polls triggered recriminations between …

According to a poll taken by Survey USA, California voters are evenly split on this question: “Will the recent rallies held by ‘No on Prop 8’ protesters ultimately help their cause? Hurt their cause? Or will it not make a difference one way or the other?” Another question asking “Have the protesters changed your opinion on Prop 8?” has 8% …

With all the often wildly-conflicting polls, the one site I kept drifting back to was stats geek Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight. History will be very kind to Silver’s predictive prowess. His final call of 349 electoral votes for Obama is dead-on for the current results, although Obama’s total may increase slightly as the couple of still deadlocked states are finally decided.

Could this explain the great disparity between polls? Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight: The polls in the Cingular-y orange color include cellphones in their samples; the polls in gray do not. The cellphone polls have Obama ahead by an average of 9.4 points; the landline-only polls, 5.1 points. I did a radio hit the other afternoon with Mark DeCamillo of California’s …

Here’s a graphic of the Field Poll results I posted early this morning.

The latest Field Poll, released last night: Over the past six weeks, a proposed constitutional amendment that would end same-sex marriage in California has gained substantial ground but still trails by a five-point margin heading into Tuesday’s election. A new Field Poll shows Proposition 8, one of the most closely watched state ballot measures in years, is supported by 44 …

A poll reveals that one in five Brits have had sex at the office. But one in four believes that gay sex should be illegal. One in five Brits has had sex at work, according to a survey which brings a whole new meaning to the term “job satisfaction”. The poll of more than 1,000 UK adults went several steps …

(Via – FiveThirtyEight.com)

It’s getting impossible to keep up with all the polling, but here’s the latest on Prop 8 from the Public Policy Institute. A majority of Californians still oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but the margin is narrowing so notably that the fate of Proposition 8 may hinge on the turnout for the presidential race. A new poll …

Despite the headline in the above graph, there has been a (very) slight improvement in the polling for Proposition 8 since we were rocked by the news two weeks ago that the Yes On 8 side was ahead. In June, the state legalized same-sex marriages. The next month, Proposition 8, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, was …

Encouraging: Asian-Americans in California overwhelmingly oppose a ballot measure that would ban gay marriage in the state, according to a groundbreaking survey released Wednesday. The poll found that 57 percent of Asian-Americans likely to vote in the Nov. 4 election oppose Proposition 8, which would reverse May’s California Supreme Court ruling that gave gay and lesbian couples the right to …

FiveThirtyEight is estimating a 30% chance that Democrats will get a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate. Noteworthy movement since our previous update includes Minnesota, which our model is finally giving to Al Franken after Rasmussen and Quinnipiac polls put him slightly ahead; North Carolina, where Kay Hagan is hardly out of the woods but now clearly appears to be …

Bouncing around the Free Republic posts in their 2008 Polls folder, I’ve found that their forum commenters react to Obama’s increasing lead in the polls with three different talking points. 1. All polls are skewed to favor Obama. McCain is really leading but pollsters are “in the tank” for Obama. They are either tweaking their data or only polling people …