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Is Crime Off the Voters' Radar?

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

We haven't heard much about crime in the present election campaign. Does that means it's off the voters' radar screen? Maybe. In this WaPo/ABC survey, voters are asked what is the single most important issue (question 5), and crime isn't on the list of 18 issues mentioned. Wait a minute. At the bottom are three more categories: "none/nothing," "other," and "no opinion." The "duh" vote gets 6%, but 11% are lumped into "other." That makes me wonder if there is a least a single-digit percentage of people focused on crime who are hidden in that group. In addition, there may be many people who don't consider crime to be the number one issue but who might consider the issue a tie-breaker if they have mixed views of the candidates on other issues. The economy is the number one issue by a wide margin, but the voters collectively aren't too sure who is better on that issue (see question 7), and a good many swing voters may be individually unsure on the point...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).