Sarah Brake
Voting Schemes and
Polling
November 9, 2010
1.) 
2.) When the announcement was made that the
class would be participating in conducting an Exit Poll I was initially
apprehensive. Two subjects, that I was
taught not to discuss with anyone I considered a friend, are Politics and
Religion. Knowing how I feel with
regards to politics and Voting I was concerned that it would be hard to find participants
for the Exit Poll. I partnered up with
Shannon Frederick, I feel that we balance each other out, as far as what I lack
she makes up for and vice versa. We decorated a small box with pink printer
paper which stated: Northern Kentucky University Exit Poll Senate Elections; we
are NKU students conducting an exit poll for a class about the Senate election:
Takes less than 30 seconds!
Confidential! We also put the
University Logo and Norse Logo on the printer paper to make us look more
legitimate. We went to where I was
registered to vote,
When we first arrived I immediately went in to place my vote. I explained to the poll workers that we were
going to be outside conducting an Exit Poll for NKU, just in case they were
wondering what we were doing outside of the building. After I placed my vote I affixed my “I Voted”
sticker to the top of our poll box, we sat right outside the front doors and
waited for people to arrive. As
potential participants made their way to the inside of the building we let them
know that we were with NKU and were conducting an Exit Poll and would be very
grateful if they would participate in our poll after they were done officially
voting. To my surprise, generally people
were not apprehensive to be participants in our Exit Poll. I found that many people did dispose of the
other candidates name themselves, only a few gave it back to one of us.
There were two participants that stand out in my memory as different
then the other people. First there was
an older gentleman; he seemed as if he wanted nothing to do with us as he
scurried into the building before I could give him our little spiel about
conducting the Exit Poll. I was
determined to get him on his way out. When
he finally came out I explained to him the nature of our business and he
proceeded to place his vote in our box.
I thanked him for his time and he began to walk away…. Suddenly he
turned around and began to have a conversation with us. He wanted to know the what
when why where and who of our exit poll.
I promised him that our results were simply for a class and would not be
published for any other reason. He then
began to enlighten us on his philosophy of voting, politics, and
politicians. He said he has never been
satisfied with the choice of candidates, the he chooses “the lesser of two
evils”, as well as his stance on how women and African Americans should not be
a part of politics. I will leave his
statements at that because it is not hard to determine how he really felt about
these subjects. I could have argued with
this man, told him that he was wrong and ignorant- but I was raised better than
that and I know that nothing I would have said would have changed his views on voting,
politics, or politicians. So I sat there and listened to him ramble until he
was done saying what he felt “needed to be said”.
The second participant was a middle aged
woman; she too seemed very much uninterested in anything that we were
doing. Most people would stop or at
least slow down as we explained that we were conducting an exit poll, but she
actually walked faster as I began to talk to her. We actually originally marked her down as a
“no” based on her actions with us.
Despite this I was determined to get her vote; after all we were trying
to get thirty votes. When she exited the
building I asked her again, explaining our relationship with NKU and why we
were conducting the poll, she responded “is this going to be quick?” I responded as much time as it takes for you
to place your candidate in to the box, not completely thrilled that she was
participating she place her choice into our box. She walked away with a weary look on her face
and attitude in her step. She was
exactly what I thought all the people voting were going to be like. Fortunately she was the minority.
Overall most people had not problem listening to what we were doing and
participating in our poll. This did help
me see that I am more critical with regards to politics and voting then most
people are. I am glad to have
experienced conducting an Exit Poll, to be honest I had never heard of an Exit
Poll until it was first mentioned in class.
It did broaden my perspective in regards to the American voter.
3.) Results
at our Precinct:
-
Name:
-
Time of day: 11:30am - 12:15pm
-
Number of voters: 20
o
Yes: 14
o
No: 6
-
Tally for each Candidate:
o
Jack Conway: I = 1
o
Rand Paul: IIIII IIIII III = 13