Voter Preferences?

I read a recent article on cnn.com that talked about voter preferences for people at the polls this fall. The article can be found here, by clicking the link. The article talked about the fact that when faced with important issues in voting this year, voters were more likely to vote for their "moral values" if it was listed and more likely to vote for other issues if that topic was not listed. Depending on who came up with the ballots and format, voters were indirectly swayed to vote for specific issues based on its listing. "When "moral values" was included in poll questions, it was named more often than any other issue. But when voters were just asked to name the issue most important in their vote for president -- without being given a list of answers -- moral values trailed the war in Iraq and the economy, according to the Pew survey." In other words, when given a list for voters to view, most voted for "moral values" as a top priority rather than the other choices given. But when lists were not given and voters were just asked what their top priorities were, they stated other issues, such as the War on Terror and the economy. While the Bush campaign drove voter preferences by including moral values as one of its issues, it was not the campaign's main focal point. "Moral values was an element in the Bush formula, but probably not the driving one," said Lee Miringoff, president of the National Council of Public Polls." I found this article interesting and having to do with public choice because voter preferences were not necessarily reflected in the way people ranked their top priority issues in the polls. Rather, voters ranked their issues depending on the format of the statement: listing the issues or asking an open-ended question. This also could bring up the question of who came up with the format for the voters to answer these questions and which side of the fence were they on? Did they not give a list of choices knowing the voters would state the War and the economy as their top choice? Or, did they give a list knowing that moral values would be selected? These are just a few questions to consider. It becomes quite evident that voting format has a lot to do with the way people vote and are swayed to vote for specific issues. article address: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/12/voters.moralvalues.ap/index.html