An activity for Government and Citizenship class. A small poll of 49 people, the correlation between their backgrounds and their opinions on current issues.

1. POLL ACTIVITY
Josh Pham

2. POLL BACKGROUND
 The purpose of this poll was to see if there are correlations
between voter backgrounds and their views on a few current
issues.
 This poll was collected from 11/28/11-12/1/11
 Poll questions were generated by me and then formatted onto an
online form through Google Docs. Through Facebook, people I
knew were invited to take this poll.
 The poll had 3 current issues it asked about:
 How much should government control/regulate the economy?
 How should government regulate healthcare? (In relation to Obamacare)
 How should government tax?
 The poll was taken by 49 people with varying backgrounds

3. POLL BACKGROUND - AGE
Age count %
13 1 2%
14 3 6%
15 3 6%
16 4 8%
17 14 29%
18 14 29%
19 5 10%
20 2 4%
43 1 2%
45 1 2%
48 1 2%

4. POLL BACKGROUND - GENDER
Gender count %
Male 26 53%
Female 23 47%

5. POLL BACKGROUND - RELIGION
religion count %
Agnostic 5 10%
Atheist 5 10%
Christian 36 73%
Deist 2 4%
Other 1 2%

6. POLL BACKGROUND - IDEOLOGY
ideology count %
Constitution 1 2%
Democrat 13 27%
Libertarian 2 4%
Moderate 2 4%
Other 3 6%
Republican 28 57%

7. POLL BACKGROUND – INCOME (PER
WEEK)
income count %
$0 30 61%
$1-$100 13 27%
$100+ 6 12%

8. POLL BACKGROUND - ETHNICITY
African 2 4%
American Indian 1 2%
Asian/Pacific Islander 4 8%
Caucasian 42 86%

9. HOW MUCH SHOULD GOVERNMENT
CONTROL/REGULATE THE ECONOMY?
 Conclusions:
 The majority of people are pleased
with the current level of
government activity in the
economy
 The minority form a bell curve
around the middle value
 The graph slightly leans towards
less regulation
 40% less regulation, 34% more
regulation
 The bell curve was expected since
extreme values aren’t normally
supported by the majority
 The curve towards less
government regulation was
expected as we are in a deficit and
the economy is down

10. HOW MUCH SHOULD GOVERNMENT
REGULATE THE HEALTHCARE?
 Conclusions:
 This question asked people about
government run healthcare
through Obamacare, 5 meaning
leave Obamacare as it is
 The majority of people are
centered from 4-7
 The graph in general is flat, with 3
people supporting each value
 A flat trend was expected since
government run healthcare (such
as Obamacare) is supported and
hated on many levels
 The spike on 5-7 is surprising, it
indicates most people like
Obamacare and want more

11. HOW MUCH SHOULD GOVERNMENT
TAX?
 Conclusions:
 This question asked how much
should government tax (5 means
leave taxes are they currently are)
 This graph is a bell curve centered
around 4 and in general people
want slightly lower taxes
 The majority of people like how the
government is currently taxing
 The curve towards lower taxes
was expected since we are in a
deficit and no one likes taxes
 It was surprising that the majority
wanted taxes as they currently are
though

12. HOW MUCH SHOULD GOVERNMENT
TAX?  Conclusions:
 This question was an extension of
the last, asking where government
should tax more (5 meaning tax
everyone equally)
 This graph was surprising, since it
is not a bell curve between values
but split between two regions
 Half of the majority wants taxes to
be put equally on everyone, while
the other half wants the rich to be
taxed more
 This is understandable, as the
economy is down yet the rich are
still rich while the poor are getting
poorer
 “Those who can pay should pay”

13. How different groups answered
BREAKDOWNS

15. AGE BREAKDOWN
 17 year olds typically wanted less government
 18 year olds typically wanted more government
 The oldest responses wanted less government
 The youngest responses wanted government to stay the way it is

17. GENDER BREAKDOWN
 Men were typically clustered around the middle, with little or no
change to government
 Women were typically spread evenly, favoring
 Less regulation on the economy
 More regulation in healthcare
 More taxes

19. RELIGION BREAKDOWN
 Christian's typically favored:  Atheist's typically favored:
 Current regulation on economy  More regulation on economy
 More regulation on healthcare  More regulation on healthcare
 Slightly less/current taxes  More taxes
 Tax equality  Tax equality
 Agnostic’s typically favored:  There were only 2 deist's and 1
 Current regulation on economy other
 More regulation on healthcare  Did not provide a large enough
sample size
 Less taxes
 Taxing the rich

21. IDEOLOGY BREAKDOWN
 Republican’s typically favored:  Other’s typically favored:
 Current regulation on economy  Current regulation on economy
 Less regulation on healthcare  More regulation on healthcare
 Less taxes  More taxes
 Tax equality  Split taxes
 Democrat’s typically favored:  Tax equality
 Taxing the rich
 More regulation on economy
 More regulation on healthcare
 More taxes
 Taxing the rich

22. Income measured in
$/week

23. INCOME (PER WEEK)
BREAKDOWN
 Those who made nothing  Those who made $100+
typically favored: typically favored:
 Less regulation on economy  More regulation on economy
 More regulation on healthcare  Less regulation on healthcare
 More taxes  Less taxes
 More taxation of rich at any level  More taxation of rich at any level
 Those who made $1-$100
typically favored:
 Current regulation on economy
 Less regulation on healthcare
 Less taxes
 Tax equality

25. IDEOLOGY BREAKDOWN
 Caucasian’s typically favored:  Others typically favored:
 Current regulation on economy  Current regulation on economy
 More regulation on healthcare  Current regulation on healthcare
 More taxes  Current taxes
 More taxation of rich at any level  Tax equality
 Asian’s typically favored:
 Less regulation on economy
 Less regulation on healthcare
 Less taxes
 Tax equality

26. ERROR
 There was not equal representation of all backgrounds
 Gender was the only background that was close to equally split
 Question 3 and 4- How should government tax was skewed
 Wording lead to higher values (no one wants to tax the poor)
 Small sample size
 To conclude thoroughly about the correlation between voter backgrounds and
these issues a larger sample size is need to avoid extraneous answers
 Limited opinion group
 This poll was not available to everyone, only those I knew. My peer group
could easily be biased more on every category.

27. FOR MORE INFO ON THIS POLL…
 To see the full results, go to
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtJHpfoZpOPGd
ElEelZJSW11X0J6VDFwWnBYV1NPc1E