Straw Poll Winners: Hillary, Health Care, Education

The Lake County Democrats table downtown at Madison Crazy Days on Friday drew lots of visitors. Brownies, bread, and other baked goods sold like crazy. Passersby also filled our Straw Poll ballot jar to the brim!

We welcomed all voters -- Democrats, independents, Republicans, even an avowed Libertarian -- to participate in the straw poll. Voters cast ballots on the following two questions:

1. Which Democrat will win your vote for President in 2008?
2. What are the most important issues the South Dakota Legislature should address in its 2008 session?

Here are the results!

Total ballots cast: 68

Presidential Straw Poll (Total Ballots Marked = 63):

1. Hillary Clinton: 27 votes = 43%
2. Barack Obama: 15 votes = 24%
3. John Edwards: 10 votes = 16%
4. Bill Richardson: 7 votes = 11%
5. Dennis Kucinich: 4 votes = 6%
6. Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden: 0 votes, 0%

SD Legislative Priorities (Total Ballots Marked = 67)
ranked in order of importance, 1 = most important, 9 = least important:

1. Health Care (average ranking of 2.6 )
   
2. Education (2.8)
3. Environment (3.4)
4. Energy (3.9)
5. Taxes (4.2)
6. Open Government (4.9)
7. Economic Development (5.2)
8. Gambling (6.7)
9. Abortion (7.5)

Some details on the Legislative Priorities results:

1. Health care and education were both marked as priorities for the legislature on 57 ballots. Health care was ranked as the #1 issue by 17 voters. Education was ranked as the #1 issue by 16 voters.
2. Abortion was left blank on 33 ballots, 49% of all cast. On the 33 ballots on which abortion was ranked, 2 voters marked it as their #1 issue. 20 voters ranked abortion #9, behind all other listed issues.
3. Other issues ranked #1: environment (7 #1 rankings), taxes (6), open government and energy (3 each), gambling and economic development (2 each).
4. Other issues ranked #9: gambling (4 #9 rankings), taxes and open government (1 each).
   
5. Most, but not all, voters ranked all nine listed issues. Some voters ranked only their top 3 or 4 issues; some voters simply marked with Xs the two or three issues they are most concerned about. The averages listed above are based only on numerical rankings given to each issue.
6. Two voters made a point of ranking abortion lower than #9. Those rankings (15 and 231) have been counted as 9s.

Readers are welcome to review the complete ballot tabulation data online.

LC Dems in the news! Straw Poll coverage by KJAM!