Exit poll format influenced 'moral values' priorities

Interesting:

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Exit poll format influenced 'moral values' priorities

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Will Lester

Nov. 12, 2004 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- This presidential election has been described by many as one in which morality mattered most to voters. But that perception may be driven at least partially by how pollsters asked voters about their priority issues.

Whether voters named "moral values'' their key issue partly depended on whether that subject was included in a list of choices provided by pollsters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Thursday.

When "moral values'' was included in poll questions, it was named more often than any other issue. But when voters were just asked to name the issue most important in their vote for president _ without being given a list of answers -- moral values trailed the war in Iraq and the economy, according to the Pew survey.

"The advantage of the open-ended question is it tells you what's at the top of mind for voters _ what they're thinking,'' said Cliff Zukin, a veteran pollster and professor of public policy at Rutgers University. "Much too much has been made of the moral values answer.''

SNIP

More at:

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/11/12/poll/index.html