Poll: Nearly 3 in 4 first-time voters favor Obama
First-time voters favor Obama over McCain by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll. The poll, conducted Oct. 17-20, found Obama supporters leading McCain supporters among first-time voters by 73 to 26 percent.
That’s a much bigger margin than the Democratic candidate enjoyed four years ago, when exit polls reported first-timers backing John Kerry over President Bush by only 7 percentage points, 53-46.
But the pollsters noted that turnout among first-time voters is challenging to predict. “That means targeted get-out-the-vote efforts can matter particularly with this group — not just in how many vote, but in how those who do vote divide between the candidates,” they said.
First-time likely voters this year include three times as many Democrats as Republicans, a sharp shift from 2004, when party registrations were about even.
A separate study found that voters between the ages of 18 and 34 rank experience low among the qualities they want in the next president.
Asked to choose the most important factor in determining whether someone is ready to be president, 78 percent of young voters chose “leadership qualities” and “vision” over “proven experience in government” or the time a candidate has spent “learning the ropes and the issues,” according the MTV Networks’ study, “The Election Effect: Issues Shaping Young Voters Now and Beyond November.
Supporters of both Obama and McCain ranked experience 11th out of 12 characteristics they want in the next president. Asked to identify what they wanted in the next president in just one word, integrity was ranked 87 on a scale of 100. Security, change and openness scored 80, followed by innovation and optimism at 77 each. Patriotism, unity, progressive, and caring came next with 76 and experience (69) and conservative (51) were last.
“This generation has watched Marc Zuckerberg, LeBron James and Carrie Underwood break convention and shoot from anonymity to celebrity overnight. To young Americans, ’shortcutting’ is cool,” said Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President of Strategic Insights and Research, MTV Networks.