The pollsters have been out en force this presidential election season.
They’ll be out again on Election Day with a flurry of exit polls.
Come Nov. 7, however, an octet of junior Hispanic, Asian American and Black political science professors will just be getting started as they launch a rare, national post-election survey of 4,500 registered voters. Most such academic surveys focus on one or two ethnic groups. Many are limited to English or offer the survey in two languages. This survey, which will be available in six different languages, will tap large samples each of 1,000 or more Asian, Black, White and Hispanic voters.
The study represents a rare opportunity to canvass such large samples of multiple ethnic voters by a group of ethnic scholars. Unlike most previous surveys, this one will take place after the election to determine the impact of candidate advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts among these ethnic groups.
Surveyors will conduct the phone interviews through Dec. 19, with some results expected early next year.
“One of the struggles we always have with our research is when we want to make cross-racial comparisons, there’s a real paucity of data,” says Dr. Sylvia Manzano, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University and co-director of the school’s Project for Equity Representation and Governance.
“We thought what if we were able to pool our intellectual and academic resources and do something after the election,” Manzano recalls. “We’re going to have something really unique, a more accurate description of what people think about each other. We will really get into some interesting questions that are increasingly relevant. It ain’t what it used to be 25 years ago in terms of demographics.”
