… Knowing that our May 28 Republican primary voter poll was reflective of past Republican primary turnouts that were significantly smaller, we decided to conduct this study at our own expense to see which voters actually accounted for the much larger turnout in this year’s Republican primary. The sample that we used for the May 28 poll was selected from any voter who voted in any one of three Republican primaries – March, 2012 for President; June, 2012 for Congress and March, 2008 for President. The post primary sample included voters who had no history of voting in primaries as well.
The Virginia Republican primary system was totally open to all voters. It is now clear that Eric Cantor’s national standing gave the race a lot of local interest among many more voters than just past Republican primary voters, including politically interested Independents and Democrats as well. Without a parallel Democrat primary, this election was very similar to a wide-open jungle-style primary. It created an organic turnout of new voters not included in our previous poll of past primary voters. CONT.
John McLaughlin, McLaughlin & Associates