Lauren Hayes

Mat115

1. See attached files

2. Conducting an exit poll was a very interesting experience, to say the least. I arrived at 12:40 pm, parked my hunk-o’-junk, and proceeded into the church where the voting was to take place. (The location was slightly amusing to me, considering the article we read for class regarding how the physical building in which the polls are held have been shown to influence the way people vote, but I digress.) After wrangling my box, camera, bag full of books and laptop, and unnecessarily gargantuan purse out of the aforementioned rust-bucket and balancing them awkwardly on my person, I tottered into the polling station to cast my own vote and get settled down to begin interviewing fellow voters. Because I wasn’t allowed to conduct the exit poll inside the (heated) building, I leaned my crap against a white pillar outside the main entrance and prepared my box and slips of paper. This, of course, is where the real fun began. I will first say that the majority of the people I polled were very congenial and polite, including those who did not have time to answer the question. One man did get belligerent, but I suspect he might have not been all there, so I don’t hold it against him. Secondly, from what I ascertained of those who chose not to remain anonymous, many of those voting in this primary did not adhere to the generational and gender lines conventional wisdom indicates that they should- i.e., younger voters are more likely to vote for a progressive candidate than older voters, men are more likely to vote for a conservative candidate than women, etc. A couple of older gentlemen, most likely in their mid-to-late-seventies, certainly belied generalizations I had about the politics of older generations, both dropping the slip of paper marked “Jack Conway” in the box and asking with wry smiles if they could burn the slip of paper they still held. Unrelated, a couple around my mom’s age expressed concern that my coat might not be warm enough. A pretty young woman with her small children in tow looked at the slips of paper in her hand, leaned in and asked “Which one is the Republican? Because I voted for him.” This sentiment was repeated a few minutes later by a middle aged man on his way out to his car. I will speculate here that the data I collected may reflect a higher majority of votes for Rand Paul than the state-wide statistics; because I was at the station between roughly 1 and 2 p.m., the majority of the people I saw were retirees who live nearby.

3. Results:

12:50 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Total Voters Contacted: 21

Rand Paul: 11

Jack Conway: 4

No Response: 6