Word: yankelovich
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...standoff turned up by the survey resulted from asking those polled to choose between the two main candidates. When the Yankelovich analysts figured in the effect of the minor candidates, Lester Maddox and Eugene McCarthy, Ford pulled ahead of Carter by 42% to 40%. Maddox is a negligible factor, polling only 1% of the vote at this point. But McCarthy draws 7%, down from 12% in August but still enough to tip the election to Ford...
Seesaw. Thus what once looked like a Carter runaway has turned into one of the tightest presidential races in U.S. history. Making the present situation even more volatile, the Yankelovich study found, 52% of the voters still have not firmed up their final voting plans, in part because so many are unenthusiastic about both major candidates (see box below). Said Pollster Daniel Yankelovich: "Our TIME survey suggests that the race will seesaw back and forth until the very last minute, reflecting the voters' agonized and disappointed frame of mind...
Americans have not been so turned off by a presidential election since 1948, when only 51.1% of the people of voting age went to the polls. According to the Yankelovich survey, 61% of the voters say they have little enthusiasm for either Carter or Ford. At the same time, voter registration is stagnating or declining in every region except the South, where people are excited about a presidential candidate from Dixie. Despite drives to sign up new voters, the registration totals, compared with 1972 figures, are expected to drop by well over 1 million people in New York...
Nonetheless, the Yankelovich study challenges the widely held belief that Americans are apathetic about politics. Three-quarters of the people in the poll were sufficiently interested in the election to watch the first Ford-Carter debate. The same proportion feel that the outcome of the election will make a difference to the country, two-thirds believe the outcome will personally affect them...
...electorate will vote may be right. The turnout of voters has steadily declined since 1960 (see chart). The drop was particularly sharp in 1972 because people aged 18 to 21 were eligible for the first time, and they are less inclined to vote than others. This year, says Daniel Yankelovich, "the election bears all the earmarks of 1948, except that we don't yet know which candidate will play Harry Truman's starring role." Studies of the 1948 election found that voters who are vacillating between unexciting choices for President tend either to put off making a final...