http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080710/pl_af...gn_080710221626


Record voter interest in US presidential campaign: poll
Thu Jul 10, 6:16 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - Record numbers of American voters are keenly following the campaign for the White House, auguring for a much higher than usual turnout in November, the Pew Research think-tank said Thursday.

"Turnout is likely to be higher this fall -- perhaps much higher than in previous elections -- as voter interest continues at record levels," Pew said in a statement posted on its website.

And with more Democrats turning out to vote in the primaries than Republicans, the spike in interest was likely to work in favor of Barack Obama's Democratic Party, Pew said.

"Strong and consistent interest and engagement suggests that voter turnout will likely be high in November, as it was during this year's primaries ... Democratic turnout could match or perhaps exceed Republican participation in November, just as it did in most states during the primaries," Pew said.

Seventy-two percent of the 2,004 Americans surveyed last month by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said they are giving "a lot of thought" to the election.

That is "by far the highest percentage at this point in the campaign since 1988," exceeding enthusiasm levels than during the five previous presidential campaigns, Pew wrote.

Seventy-seven percent of Democrats, or 18 percentage points more than in the same month four years ago, said they were giving a great deal of thought to the election, the Pew poll showed.

"Republican engagement also has increased over this period (from 61 percent to 72 percent), but for the first time somewhat fewer GOP voters than Democrats say they are giving a lot of thought to the election," Pew said.

According to the poll, Obama was leading his Republican rival for the White House, John McCain by 48 percent to 40 percent, and the presumed Democratic candidate's backers showed greater commitment to him than Republican voters did to McCain.

"Most voters who say they support Obama -- 28 percent out of the 48 percent -- say they support him strongly. By contrast, only about a third of McCain's backers say they support him strongly (14 percent of 40 percent)," the Washington-based think-tank said.

On the key election issue of the floundering economy, 51 percent of voters said they consider Obama better able than McCain (31 percent) to improve economic conditions.

McCain came out on top on another key issue, the Iraq war: 47 percent said the Republican candidate would be better placed to make sound decisions on Iraq than Obama, whose decision-making had the backing of 41 percent.

The poll also showed that more independents are still sitting on the fence than in June 2004, when President George W. Bush was running for re-election against Democratic contender John Kerry.

Nearly half of independents in this year's election -- 46 percent -- said they were undecided or may change their minds, compared with 28 percent in 2004.

They could be swayed to Obama's side: the Democrat had a strong lead over McCain in convincing voters to elect him, the poll showed.

A majority of voters -- 55 percent -- gave Obama a grade of A or B for convincing them to vote for him, while less than a third -- 32 percent -- gave McCain similar marks.

Obama's "grade" for winning over voters was better than for any candidate, Democratic or Republican, in the past three campaigns.

My only source of concern on this Sky is the fact that the % is still high that folks see McCain would be better to handle the War than Obama, thats a weakness for Obama and he needs to jump on that fairly quickly! I would also bet the Obama Team would take a fairly big hit on the ability of the Democratic Party (Obama) to provide a safe and secure nation. The polls did not ask that question I wish they would have!!

Generally speaking, and all the polls confirm this, the greater the turn out, the better it is for Obama.