Why survey?

As the UAPA leadership team discussed the upcoming election, it became clear that we were unable to answer some basic questions:

• How engaged are UAPA members in local politics and the upcoming City Council race?
  
• Should UAPA endorse City Council candidates?
  
• How do members find useful informaton about local issues and candidate positions?
• Are all those yard signs working?
  

Between October 9th and 20th, UAPA asked members to complete a membership survey about the 2007 Upper Arlington City Council election. We received 118 completed survey returns. Many respondents took the opportunity to add free-form comments --- adding valuable context to their responses.

Executive Summary

Some preliminary conclusions we drew:

1. Most of our members are undecided about which City Council candidates to vote for.
2. Our members would like UAPA to give them the issue and candidate context they need to make their voting decisions.
3. Members have a strong bias for Democrats over Republicans.
4. Members are biased slightly toward women. This would give right-wing Leslie Heath a leg up, even though she is perhaps the most opposed to progressive social values.
   
5. Our members are finding it hard to get good, accurate issue, position and candidate information for UA's City Council race.
6. Krauss and Seidel, the most moderate candidates, have only a very small advantage over the other candidates.

The survey questions fell into four categories. The graphs and member quotes are in each section:

1. Local Information Sources
2. Candidate Qualifications
3. Election Awareness and Importance
   
4. Voting Preferences
5. Additional Comments