Survey of Voters & Nonvoters
November 2012
© 2012 Ipsos. All rights reserved. Contains Ipsos' Confidential and Proprietary information andmay not be disclosed or reproduced without the prior written consent of Ipsos.
Commissioned by Prof. Ellen ShearerMedill School of Journalism, Media Integrated Marketing CommunicationsNorthwestern University
Methodology
These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted from Nov. 7-19, 2012.
A sample of 1,686 Americans ages 18+ was interviewed online, including 516 who
voted in the recent presidential election and 1,170 who did not vote.
The precision of the Ipsos online polls is measured using acredibility interval. In thiscase, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points forvoters and 3.3 percentage points for nonvoters.
The data were weighted by gender, age and ethnicity to the post-election voterprofile based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online polls.
All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, butnot limited to, coverage error and measurement error. Figures marked with anasterisk (*) indicate a percentage value of greater than zero but less than one-one-half of one percent. Where figures do not sum to 100, this is due to the effects of rounding.
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Background and Objectives
This research was conducted on beone-half of Professor Ellen Shearer of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated MarketingCommunications, building on a past survey exploring the attitudes andbehaviors of nonvoters.
USA Today was provided the poll results for public dissemination andreleased the results on Nov. 14, 2012 in its print edition and Nov. 13, 2012on its website.
Objectives include:
To understand, analyze and compare the behaviors, opinions, andattitudes
of nonvoters and voters during the 2012 presidential electionsand why they did not vote.
To understand the key demographics of nonvoters during this recent2012 presidential election and to find what key issues are important tothem.
To compare demographic and attitudinal differences between votersand nonvoters.
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