Press Release:  Harwich Student Conduct Exit Poll in New Hampshire – January 8, 2008

Twenty-four students and two teachers from Harwich High School took a field trip to New Hampshire to see the state’s “first-in-the-nation” primary first-hand.  While there, they interviewed 137 voters in Nashua and Milford for an exit poll summarized below. They also got to see Sen. John McCain as the “Straight-Talk Express” visited Ward 1 in Nashua. 

In the exit poll, McCain beat Huckabee, Romney, and Paul 40% to 26%, 16%, and 10% respectively.  For the Democrats, Clinton led with 39% over Obama and Edwards tied with 29%.  The small survey conducted in a narrow area of the state isn’t likely to be an accurate predictor.  However, many other interesting trends emerged.

Independents voted for Democrats 77% of the time, indicating a possible advantage for November.  The top four issues cited by voters were foreign policy (the war in Iraq), character and experience, health care (esp. for Democrats) and the economy.  Among these, foreign policy helped McCain and Obama, Experience helped McCain and Clinton, and the economy helped Edwards. 

The average voter watched 3.6 debates, and those who were influenced by them in their decision favored Huckabee and Obama most.  Voters reported seeing hundreds of ads and receiving dozens of phone calls – some had been called ten times in the last day.  While most said the were not influenced by ads, 15% of Democrats cited Clinton’s ads as convincing, and 22% of Republicans voted against Romney because of his negative ads.

Pres. Bush had very low ratings in the survey with only 15% approving, 77% disapproving and 9% unsure.  Even among Republicans, 54% disapproved.  Only 30% of Republican voters described themselves as evangelical Christians – half the rate reported in Iowa, and while Huckabee led with 42% of their votes, the lower percentage might account for his loss.

Both men and women favored Democrats though more so for women (68%-32% compared to 55%-45%).  Both younger and older voters favored Democrats while middle aged voters were evenly split.  Younger voters voted most for Obama and Huckabee, while middle aged and older voters supported Clinton and McCain.

The students on the trip were all senior government students.  They reported a deeper interest in the presidential race after this experience