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• Friday, September 12, 2008 06:35 PM

  My experience in telephone polling a "small town" and "rural" sample

  For somne days now I have been doing telephone polling through our local Obama office. I am not quoting the net results of all those doing this voting, just my experience.

  First, the phone numbers I worked with were older citizens (I'm 76 myself). I talked easily and casually with most of the respondents. We asked nothing of the respondents unless they were willing to drop by HQ, get materials, learn Obama positions. Ages ranged from 65 to 87. Our local population is small town or rural, predominantly caucasian, and votes Democratic in almost all elections. I doubt if this is the usual Obama voter profile. Still, it is a good portion of who we are in non-urban Wisconsin.

  !. 67% of those contacted verbalized support for Obama.

  2. Many were grateful for the chance to speak out and liked being discussants.

  3. A fraction expressed resentment at being asked their preference in the election. Some had voted absentee early.

  4. A very few pointed to their "right to life" convictions as a reason for rejecting Obama.

  5. One person puzzled me by stating he was voting for Palin for President.

  6. Perhaps obviously, most of the persons called were retired persons.

  And our district always votes in higher proportion than the balance of the state. In our primary balloting we voted for Clinton in majority. I hope this is interesting.

  —GaryVan Read GaryVan's other letters
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