Political Buzz - Undecided voters will decide ballot propositions

A place where people go to talk about politics.

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

Undecided voters will decide ballot propositions

Posted by Peter Callaghan @ 08:54:01 am

The new Washington Poll was released last night and shows that most of the statewide ballot measures – as well as Puget Sound's Prop. 1 – are in the hands of voters who haven't made up their minds.

So if you haven't mailed in your ballot yet, expect to become very popular with the campaigns.

The poll asked 600 voters how they intended to vote. That means the results have a margin of error of 4 percent.

On Initiative 960, which would require two-thirds votes for future tax increases, 41 percent said they were certain to vote yes or were leaning that way. The certain and likely no vote totaled 40 percent. But 18 percent of those polled said they were undecided or didn't know how they would vote.

On the insurance reform measure Referendum 67, a total of 48 percent of voters said they would support, while 31 percent said they would oppose. But only 35 percent of the yes votes said they were certain of their vote, with the rest saying they could change their minds. And 21 percent were still undecided.

Bigger majorities were supporting the Rainy Day fund (61 percent to 17 percent) and the Simple Majority for School Levies measure (59 percent to 31 percent).

The poll provides a less-exact look at the Roads and Transit measure because the sample size is much smaller – only 325 voters were surveyed producing a margin of error of 5.4 percent). The results (43 percent in support and 46 percent opposed) is well within the margin of error, making the issue too close to predict.

Categories: Campaign news, Roads & Transit

COMMENTS:

No COMMENTS for this post yet...

Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. Please login or register to comment.

Political Buzz

A team of experienced reporters keep you updated on what's happening in political arenas at the city, county, state and federal levels. From presidential campaign visits to who's running for city council, we've got it covered.

Contributors

Niki Sullivan covers Tacoma city government. Before coming to Tacoma, she covered state government in Oregon. She is a regular contributor to the GritCity blog. Email Niki

Peter Callaghan is a local columnist. He’s covered the statehouse and state politics since 1981. Before joining The News Tribune in 1985, the Stadium High grad worked for newspapers in Everett and Lewiston, Idaho, and for The Associated Press in Olympia and Seattle. Email Peter

Joe Turner has covered state government and transportation issues since 1990. Since the Bellarmine grad’s arrival in the newsroom in 1978, he’s covered police, suburban cities, Tacoma City Hall, Federal Way City Hall and the Pierce and King county governments. Email Joe

David Wickert covers Pierce County government. Before coming to The News Tribune in 1998, he covered local government for newspapers in Illinois, Virginia and Tennessee. Email David

Jason Hagey covers politics. Before coming to The News Tribune in late 2000, he worked at newspapers in the Tri-Cities and Pendleton, Ore., covering city and county government, courts, crime and the occasional feature. Email Jason

Les Blumenthal has been covering Washington, D.C. for The News Tribune since 1990, focusing on issues and politicians involving the state. Before joining The News Tribune, he spent 13 years working for The Associated Press in Seattle, Illinois and Washington, D.C. Email Les

Hunter George is the local news editor who oversees coverage of state and county politics. Before coming to The News Tribune in 2001, he spent 11 years covering the statehouses in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington state for The Associated Press. Email Hunter

John Henrikson is a local news editor who oversees City of Tacoma and education coverage. He's worked as a journalist in the Northwest for 19 years, supervising coverage and reporting on local and state government, the environment and growth. Email John

Local politics links

• Chris Mulick's Olympia Dispatch
• Brad Shannon's Campaign Trail
• Postman on Politics
• Sound Politics
• Horse's Ass
• Richard Roesler's Eye on Olympia
• P-I's Strange Bedfellows