Mom and Pop Pollster Reports
Reporting from the beautiful California Wine Country, I wanted to share some interesting polling information that we have collected in our small retail store in a high traffic, tourist area.
The news that there was no bounce coming out of the convention convinced us we needed to find out for ourselves what people were thinking. Just simple questions: Who are you voting for? What is your political affiliation? Are you registered to vote? Are you going to vote?
The process as well as results to date are most intriguing and I decided it was time to share some good stories. Keep in mind that many of our participants are from out of state. In a future blog, we'll report the breakdown between California and all other states. We all know that even though Caleeefornia is run by an acting govenor or is that a govenor that used to be an actor (AGAIN!), that we still swing on the liberal end of the spectrum and barring any horrible occurances between now and November 2, we'll probably vote Democratic.
We started our poll on August 2, just after the Democratic convention. After watching all the Sunday morning shows touting that there was no bounce from the convention, we made our decision. Our results for the last 20 days are:
Out of 181 respondents 125 voted for Kerry, 39 for Bush, 13 undecided, 2 for Nadar, 2 for the Liberterian candidate. Only 1 person checked "maybe" under the question of whether or not they would vote.
The dialogue we have with these people is remarkable. Having this poll sitting on our counter signals the "ok" to talk politics in a store that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics. Several stories come to mind and I will try to share the ones that I found to be the most compelling.
A lady from Delaware-in her 60's I'm guessing-with a slight hint of an accent said that she was waiting on her citizenship papers to come through so she could vote. "I've lived in this country 40 years and just became a citizen. When they asked me why at the citizenship interview I said 'To vote the bastard out of office' " She was from Germany originally and said she never felt the need to become a citizen but she can't bear not to vote this year.
Some people act as if this poll is the real thing and want to fill out several forms. No--sorry!
Canadians seem particularly outraged by what is happening in our country. One gent really wanted to fill out the form but I politely declined while getting him to talk more about his opinions. He said the Canadians were laughing out loud in 2000 when "Jeb pulled the election for his big brother". Now 4 years later according to this Canadian fellow, they are crying at the mere possibility that it might happen again.
One Canadian visitor explained that our connection (the two countries) is so close that whatever happens with us greatly affects them. Good point.
The most moving was two older gentlemen from Southern California--Orange County to be exact (the conservative stronghold of the state). These were well dressed, well jeweled tourists visiting wine country--giving their wives free reign in the store. The first one filled out the form and commented that we must change "regimes" before the draft was reinstated. He feared most that his grand children would be sent off to a war like Iraq. Totally senseless and unnecessary. I could tell he was very emotional about it and tryed to be non-commital by saying "these are interesting times". The other gentleman said "these are very sad times" and proceeded to fill out the poll. Seems that these two Vietnam Vets were more concerned about the war than any of the other issues on the table.
And did you know that in Germany they show John Kerry films almost daily touting his Viet Nam days and his rise to power? The German's it seems really like this guy. Imagine that!
Well stay tuned for more news from Mom and Pop Pollster. Every day brings new insights and conversations. We hope you'll let us know what you think or what other information we can gather that might be of interest. On my next blog, I'll tell you how the whole polling idea started--even before the convention!
Stuart
1:38:14 PM 
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