U of U Straw Poll May Predict Youth Vote in Coming Elections

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) About two-thousand University of Utah students are expected to participate in a straw poll this week to gauge where they stand on the hottest issues of the election:

"Who they support in the Salt Lake City Mayor's race. Whether or not they support education vouchers and who they supprt in the 2008 Presidential election," says Bryson Morgan, who is directing this first-ever straw poll for the Hinckley Institute of Politics.

Morgan says the results will probably skew toward politically-savvy students, though polls are being distributed to biology and English classes and online. The poll also asks students to identify their ethnicity, political affiliation and religion - which is a nod to Mitt Romney's candidacy, says Morgan:

"So many of the questions nationally from reporters are how much of Romney's support from Utah is based on religion," says Morgan. "So we hope to show how X percent of students who are LDS support Romney. X percent support Hillary. Just kind of show how the support breaksdown among different religions."

Morgan hopes the straw poll will also remind students to register to vote and visit the polls on November 6th. Results of the survey will be released Thursday evening.

See the survey online at www.hinckley.utah.edu.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom, Election Coverage, and Election 2007. Copyright 2008 KCPW