Divided We Fail's Swing Voter Battleground State Surveys

The AARP Battleground Voter Survey was commissioned as part of Divided We Fail to identify undecided “swing voters” in 6 key battleground states for the 2008 Presidential election and explore policy issues that will motivate these voters. The survey was conducted among 2,405 swing voters in New Hampshire, New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Within these states, the survey focused exclusively on people who are either undecided in whom they will vote for in the Presidential election or express relatively weak support for a particular candidate.

While the state-by-state results vary somewhat, in general several key trends hold true: swing voters are older, focused on the economy and financial and health care security issues, and do not feel that either candidate is adequately addressing these issues.

Survey findings include:

• 94 percent of swing voters agree that health care and financial security are too big for any one candidate or party to fix.
• 93 percent favor requiring clear explanations of health care costs so patients know how much they will be charged upfront.
• 90 percent favor requiring schools to teach financial literacy to all children.
• 90 percent favor making health care affordable for small businesses by allowing them to band together for lower rates, providing tax credits to offset employer premium contributions, and protecting them from large rate increases.
• 89 percent favor establishing preventive care management to help people with multiple chronic illnesses receive better care at lower cost.

The telephone interviews were conducted with random samples of approximately 400 likely voters aged 18 and older in each of the 6 states who are undecided or not strongly committed to a candidate. The interviews were conducted in English by Woelfel Research, Inc. from June 27 to July 20, 2008. For additional information, contact Andrew Nannis at 202-434-2592.