Voters uninformed about candidates

A study done by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at Penn has found that Democratic voters do not possess adequate knowledge to make an informed decision between the candidates.

According to the National Annenberg Election Survey in the most recent period from Jan. 1 to Jan. 15, 81 percent of those polled said that they would not be able to make an informed choice based on what they have learned so far.

The statistics were not much better for the states that hold primary elections by Feb. 3.

In those nine states, only 25 percent of individuals polled responded that they felt knowledgeable enough about the candidates. The number declined to 18 percent in the later states.

Although the individual statistics for Iowa and New Hampshire were inconclusive, some indications show that the excessive time spent by the candidates in those two states has increased voter confidence.

"There is a natural ebb and flow to the process of learning about presidential candidates," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, in a press release.

"The closer that one gets to a primary or general election where one gets a chance to cast a vote, the greater the attention paid by those in that area," she added.

"But with two small states, Iowa and New Hampshire going first, we increase the likelihood that a front-runner will be designated and some candidates eliminated before most of the country is aware of who the candidates are," she said.

The poll, which began on Oct. 7, will continue for another 11 months through the coming Nov. 2 general election. During this time period, over 200 interviews will be conducted per night.

Because of the especially large size of the sample, the "poll enables you to measure quite precisely when things change and why they change," said Adam Clymer, the political director of the survey.

The survey also offers a unique ability to analyze small cross-sections of the population, such as Native Americans or specific Latino groups, Clymer said.

Also, according to the survey -- which additionally polls on the perceived influence of the media in politics -- 36 percent thought that the media played a central role in the electoral process by implicitly designating a front-runner, agreed by most to be former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

"It is fundamentally an academic survey," Clymer said, adding that it was intended to expose the problem of uninformed voters, with the hope that politicians could address it.

"We are not in the business of writing prescriptions," Clymer added.

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