Straw Poll Shows Strong Age Bias Among Nominal ‘Liberals’

The Common Dreams 2012 Reader Survey results are in.

Between Nov. 1st and 12PM EST Monday, 15,767 of our readers weighed in on a wide variety of issues – including who they would vote for for US President Tuesday.

The key highlights:

  • 74% of our readers will vote for President Obama with the Green Party’s Jill Stein at 18% and the Justice Party’s Rocky Anderson at 2%Romney will get the votes of 1%.
  • The older you are, the more likely you support the Obama ticket. The younger you are, the more likely you support 3rd party candidates.
  • Our readers overwhelmingly support the progressive position on key ballot issues being voted on in various states on November 6
  • 57% of our readers have been reading Common Dreams for over 5 years.
  • 82% of our readers use Facebook; 18% do not. 43% use Twitter; 57% do not.
  • 73% of our readers read the comments below articles; 27% do not. But, only 12% have commented themselves; 88% have not.
  • 87% of our readers are 51 years old or older.
  • 56% of our readers either have graduate degrees or have attended graduate school.

* * *

The Presidential results:

Stewart Alexander/Alejandro Mendoza 
Socialist Party
0.2%
Rocky Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez
Justice Party
2.2%
Virgil Goode/Jim Clymer
Constitution Party
0.1%
Gary Johnson/Jim Gray
Libertarian Party
1.3%
Barack Obama/Joe Biden
Democratic Party
73.8%
Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan
Republican Party
1.2%
Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala
Green Party
18.0%
None of the above/Write-in 3.1%

 

The results by age group show a sharp difference. Obama has the support of 80% of those 67 years old and older; Jill Stein comes in first among readers between the ages of 21-35:

Candidates 21-35 36-50 51-65 66-79 80+ Total
Rocky Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez
Justice Party
8.5% 1.9% 2.2% 1.8% 2.0% 2.2%
Barack Obama/Joe Biden
Democratic Party
37.7% 62.4% 73.0% 78.8% 80.8% 73.8%
Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala
Green Party
44.3% 25.8% 18.3% 14.8% 12.2% 18.0%

 

On the Ballot issues facing voters around the country on Election Day, readers overwhelmingly supported the progressive positions:

YES NO UNDECIDED
California’s Prop 37: Label GMO Foods 93.5% 2.8% 3.6%

 

YES NO UNDECIDED
Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage 91.2% 4.3% 4.5%

 

BOTH YES MEDICAL ONLY BOTH NO UNDECIDED
Legalize Marijuana/Legalize Medical Marijuana 79.7% 14.0% 1.9% 4.4%

 

YES NO UNDECIDED
Weaken Reproductive Rights 3.7% 92.8% 3.5%

 

How our readers self-identify on the political spectrum:

Radical 8.1%
Progressive 48.0%
Liberal 25.0%
Moderate 4.5%
Conservative 1.1%
Other 13.3%

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