70% of Voters Felt Informed, Poll Finds

Despite the charges, countercharges and remarkably angry tenor of this year’s congressional campaigns, nearly three out of four voters say they feel they learned enough about the candidates to make informed choices, according to a new post-election survey of voters.

The survey, conducted as voters left the polls on Tuesday and released Saturday by the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press, found that 70% of respondents said they were satisfied with the amount of political information they received during the campaign.

In California’s U.S. Senate race, 72% of those who voted for the apparent victor, incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein, said they had learned enough about the candidates and the issues. Similarly, 76% of those who voted for her challenger, Rep. Mike Huffington (R-Santa Barbara), said they were satisfied with the amount of information they received.

Many of last week’s congressional races have been characterized as contests in which voters frustrated with what they see as a gridlocked government cast ballots against incumbent lawmakers or majority Democrats, even if they knew little about the challengers.

But survey director Andrew Kohut said respondents who characterized their votes as anti-incumbent in nature were no more likely to report dissatisfaction with the amount of available information than were those who were more familiar with the candidates they supported.

“The conclusion we draw is that in this extremely negative campaign, the voters feel illuminated,” Kohut said.

In one of the most vitriolic campaigns, the Virginia U.S. Senate race that focused on alleged marital infidelity by incumbent Democrat Charles S. Robb and Iran-Contra perjury by Republican challenger Oliver L. North, 83% of those who voted for either Robb or North said they had sufficient information to cast their votes on an informed basis.

Among those who voted for third-party or independent candidates, however, there was slightly less satisfaction with available information. In the Virginia race, for example, 77% of those who voted for independent J. Marshall Coleman said they had learned enough about the candidates.

In general, Republicans seemed marginally more satisfied with the amount of information they received than Democrats, while those who identified themselves as supporters of 1992 independent presidential candidate Ross Perot were the least satisfied. Among Perot supporters, only 65% said they had learned enough about the candidates.

The survey found that 62% of those who had not completed high school said they had learned enough. The satisfaction level increased with additional education, reaching 74% among college graduates. Similarly, the number rose along with income levels.

The poll found that voters in the West were less likely to say they had learned enough than those in other regions.

The Times Mirror Center survey was conducted among voters as they left polling places on Tuesday. It questioned 5,260 voters across the country, with a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point for national findings. The margin of error in statewide samples was one percentage point.

The Times Mirror Co., parent of the center, is the owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper, broadcasting and publishing enterprises.