Making the case for the candidates
 |
With some analysts saying there’s a 50 percent chance that this election will be decided by the voters of Ohio, and others saying that the Jewish vote will be decisive, the question arises: What do the Jewish voters of Ohio – who make up a bit more than 1 percent of the state’s population – think about the election?
Fortunately, the American Jewish Committee, which long has surveyed American Jewish public opinion, this year sponsored surveys of Jewish voters in the swing states of Florida and Ohio.
According to the poll of Ohio, 64 percent of them will choose President Obama and 29 percent will vote for Governor Romney on Election Day. Seven percent said they still were undecided.
The percentage committed to Romney was virtually the same as those who described themselves as conservative or leaning that way. With 49 percent describing themselves as liberal or leaning liberal, Obama appears to have swayed the majority of the moderates, leaving about a third of them undecided.
The telephone survey of 238 registered Jewish voters in Ohio was conducted from Sept. 13-30 by QEV Analytics, a public opinion research organization. The margin of error was plus or minus 6.4 percent.
The most important issue is the economy for 47 percent of the sample. Fourteen percent said the most important issue is health care, with seven percent saying it is U.S.-Israel relations.
A further 21 percent rated U.S.-Israel relations as their second or third priority, making it one of the top three priorities of 28 percent of those polled. In contrast, the economy was a top-three priority of 78 percent of respondents; health care of 50 percent; and national security of 34 percent. Abortion was a top-three priority of 18 percent, Iran’s nuclear program of 10 percent, and church-state issues of 7 percent.
For the complete results of the AJC survey of Ohio Jewish voters, visit http://bit.ly/R2CTO9
comments