Editor’s note: Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Stay informed with OPB on the presidential race, key congressional battles and other local contests and ballot measures in Oregon and Southwest Washington at opb.org/elections.
Polls are an inherent, and sometimes confusing, fact of life in American politics.
At OPB, we’ve been conducting election-year surveys of Oregon voters and potential voters for years. But over the past few election cycles, we’ve changed our approach. We’ve moved away from polls focused on who voters seem to support — “horse race polls” if you will — mostly because they don’t mesh with what you’ve repeatedly told us you want from election coverage: Stories that help you figure out how you want to vote based on a deeper understanding of the issues candidates are discussing and the impact ballot measures would have on your day-to-day life.
This year, we’ve gone a step further. So many of the conversations Oregonians are having right now are about the future of our state and whether the economic and environmental problems facing us are surmountable. Instead of polling the population as a whole, we decided to take a look at which issues are driving civic participation among the people who will live in that future: Millennial and Generation Z voters.
Related: What you need to know about voting in Oregon and Southwest Washington
Over the next few weeks, along with our more traditional election preview coverage, you’ll see a series of stories diving into the results of a survey of voters and would-be voters between the ages of 18 and 40 conducted for OPB by DHM Research. We’ll look at their worries about the economy, the reasons many of them are skeptical about the power of their vote and their attitudes on a number of the biggest issues they say are driving their decision to participate in the political process, including abortion and homelessness, or their decision not to vote.
You can see the full results of the DHM Research survey, and you can find all our election resources — including details about how to make sure you’re registered and all our election previews as they roll out.
And if you have any questions about OPB’s election coverage and any of our news decisions, you can email me.
