Poll: Wis. voters may be swayed by debates
MADISON, Wis. (AP) One-fourth of Wisconsin voters say in a new poll that the upcoming presidential debates may change who they support.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows that 25 percent say they are very or somewhat likely to change their mind after the debates. The first debate is Friday night.
Of those, the risk is about the same for both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.
Twenty-two percent of Obama supporters say they may change their minds after the debate. Twenty-four percent of McCain backers say the same thing.
Overall, Obama led by McCain by 7 percentage points in the poll of 1,313 likely voters conducted Sept. 14 to 21. There was a 2.7 percent margin of error.
Sep 24, 2008 at 6 p.m.
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When I was in college many years ago as a poli sci major, we did a fairly extensive study to determine the effectiveness of debates. What we found was that debates almost never change anyone's mind. They do very effectively reinforce previously held beliefs, both pro and con, but have very, very little to do with influencing votes that are undecided. When we presented these findings to the League of Women Voters (a leading sponsor/advocate of debates), they flatly rejected the findings out of hand. They just couldn't accept that maybe they weren't all that they thought they were.
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