Poll shows backing for Question 1

AUGUSTA – Participants in a poll released Friday by a Portland-based marketing firm overwhelmingly favor an education funding proposal that will appear on Tuesday’s statewide ballot as Question 1.

MaryEllen FitzGerald, of Critical Insights, said her surveyors completed 600 statewide telephone calls between April 23 and May 20 and that 60 percent of those questioned said they would vote for Question 1. Twenty-seven percent said they would vote against it, and 14 percent said they did not know how they would vote.

“This is a fairly high number which, I think, indicates the level of confusion about exactly what the implications of the referendum are,” she said.

FitzGerald said support for Question 1 ran highest among Republicans at 68 percent, but added that Democrats and independent, or unenrolled, voters also favored the proposal, weighing in at 53 percent and 56 percent, respectively.

The survey relied on a 95 percent confidence level, which FitzGerald explained meant that if her study was replicated 100 times, the results would be the same in 95 of the replications. At the 95 percent confidence level, FitzGerald said her survey contained a margin of error of 4 percent.