The Cali Garmo

A new report from Let California Ring details how exit polls from the recent election were innaccurate for some demographics for Proposition 8. The study shows that [[party affiliation, political ideology, frequency of attending worship services and age were the key factors for how a person voted in the election for Prop 8.]{}]{style="color: #000000"}

[[The study was written by]{}]{style="color: #000000"}[[Patrick J. Egan, Ph.D., from NYU and Kenneth Sherrill, Ph.D., from CUNY. From the study we see that one of the largest differences between this study and the exit polls is in the way that African-Americans voted. Exit polls put the votes made by African-Americans at 70% for Prop 8 while the study reports that only 58% of African-Americans voted for it. Although this number is still high, don't go blaming African-Americans. According to the study this higher number is due to the fact that African-Americans tend to attend religious services more, which is a greater factor for voting yes on Prop 8. So in essence, it isn't being African-American that made them vote for Prop 8, but their religious intentions.]{style="color: #000000"}]{}

[[From the study we can see the following:]{style="color: #000000"}]{}

• [[ 67% of those over 65 voted for Prop 8]{style="color: #000000"}]{}
• [[70% of those who attended religious service weekly voted for Prop 8]{style="color: #000000"}]{}
• [[81% of Republicans voted for Prop 8]{style="color: #000000"}]{}
• [[82% of conservatices voted for Prop 8]{style="color: #000000"}]{}
• [[60% of people who did not personally know people in the LGBT community voted for Prop 8]{style="color: #000000"}]{}

[[So in essence the 4 factors that influence how a person voted were their age, their religious attendance, their political identity and party. Their race was not a big factor in how they decided to vote, so don't go blaming African-Americans, blame the religious institutions.]{style="color: #000000"}]{}

[[Another thing the study looked at was the trend in how votes changed from the 2000 vote as compared to the 2008 vote. The study showed that almost every demographic showed that more people were voting for same-sex marriages than before in almost every demographic, sometimes by a margin of 16% which occured in those aged 45-64 (They went from 63% against to 47% against same-sex marriage). The second largest difference was 13% and this occured in those aged 18-29 (Which went from 58% against to 43% against).]{style="color: #000000"}]{}

[[Some demographics did not change much though in their opinion of same-sex marriage. Republicans were the only demographic that showed an increase for opposition by going from 80% against to 81% against same-sex marriage. Those over 65 and conservatives were the other 2 demographics that did not change their opinion by %4 or more.
]{style="color: #000000"}]{}

[[Source: LetCaliforniaRing
]{style="color: #000000"}]{}