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AARP Issue Polls Shows South Carolina AARP Members Still Likely To Change Candidate Preferences As They Learn More About Their Positions On Health And Financial Security
News Release
January 2, 2008
Columbia, SC - With less than a month to the start of the South Carolina presidential primaries, AARP released a poll today of 1,010 of AARP South Carolina members who say they may vote in either primary. The AARP poll indicates that many AARP members are still not settled in their candidate preference. Among potential Democratic voters, 61 percent are at least somewhat likely to change their candidate preference and the figure is higher among potential Republican voters, where almost eight in ten are at least somewhat likely to change their preference.
According to the issue poll about nine in ten AARP members surveyed say the issue of health care will be important in making their decision about who to vote for (96 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of Republicans), and virtually all of them say that issues related to financial security such as Social Security, incentives for savings and investment and pension protection will be important to their voting decision (97 percent of Democrats and 94 percent of Republicans).
"This poll indicates that candidates still must do a better job of discussing these two critical domestic issues of health care and financial security down the homestretch," said Bill Brown, AARP South Carolina Divided We Fail manager. The first survey released in August 2007, showed that 70 percent of AARP members and 81 percent of AARP members likely to vote in the primary said they were at least likely to change their preferences.
AARP is further elevating these critical issues by educating our members: over 23 million households through the AARP Bulletin, over 400,000 potential primary and caucus voters via direct mail, and millions more on dividedwefail.org. ""In Their Own Words" proves that AARP's calls for action and answers have not gone unheard, and help us achieve our goal of educating voters," said Brown. AARP is providing its members with the information they need come Election Day to decide which candidate best represent their views on health care and financial security. AARP used each candidate's website, speeches, books and campaign literature and asked them questions at events around the country to develop the booklet.
"With less than 30 days until the South Carolina primaries, AARP members in South Carolina are continuing to be engaged in the election cycle," said Brown. The survey reported that more than eight in ten AARP members who say they are likely to vote in the primaries are following the coverage at least somewhat closely, to see where candidates stand on the issues. There are more than 553,000 AARP members in South Carolina.
The entire report can be found at www.aarp.org/election_issues.