IOGP Partners with Exoro Group on Opinion Poll

Poll numbers released Friday illustrate the need for legislators to educate Utah residents about the most important issues they will face during the upcoming session.

The Utah State University Institute of Government and Politics partnered with the Exoro Group on the poll, which was conducted by Dan Jones & Associates and released Friday during the Exoro Group’s Legislative Policy Summit. Polling data was collected from a random sample of 715 registered voters between Dec. 22 and Jan. 10. It has a margin of error of 3.6 percent, with a 5.2 percent margin of error on questions where the sample was split.

Dr. Damon Cann, associate professor at USU

Top-shelf issues the Legislature will tackle during the 45-day session that begins Jan. 26 include a proposed increase in the gas tax and the expansion of Medicaid. Poll numbers, however, show that many residents have little familiarity with the issues or the arguments surrounding them. The Healthy Utah Plan, in particular, confused many poll respondents. When asked if they knew about the proposal, 44 percent has no awareness and another 44 percent said they had little understanding of the issue. Because of that, any poll numbers about public support or opposition for the Healthy Utah Plan carry little weight, said Damon Cann, an associate professor in the USU Political Science Department. Cann presented the poll numbers to more than 200 legislators, policy makers, lobbyists, journalists and keynote speaker Karl Rove during the Policy Summit.

“When you see 44% of people don’t even know what it is, you have to be really careful about using public opinion to formulate public policy," Cann said to the group.

The increased gas tax, which legislative supporters argue is needed to fund road and other infrastructure improvement, had a large number of respondents without an opinion on the issue.

“The large number of neutrals shows that people don’t really understand what needs to be done,” Cann said. “There needs to be substantial education for the public.”

Cann spoke for nearly 30 minutes about the poll, which also included questions about education funding and other legislative issues, statewide political races, and the political party caucus system.

We will continue to release analysis of the numbers on the IOGP blog as the Legislature’s general session progresses. Like our Facebook page for a link in the next few days to the poll numbers presentation.