On July 16, both Public Policy Polling and Quinnipiac University Polls released Virginia gubernatorial election returns. The Public Policy Poll included all three candidates listed on the ballot, and got these results: Democrat Terry McAuliffe 41%, Republican Ken Cuccinelli 37%, Libertarian Rob Sarvis 7%, undecided 15%. See the details here.
The Quinnipiac University Poll did not mention Sarvis, and merely asked respondents if they favor McAuliffe, Cuccinelli, or “someone else.” The “someone else” category polled at only 1%. In this poll, McAuliffe was at 43% and Cuccinelli at 39%, with 17% undecided.
If Sarvis could get 10%, the Virginia Libertarian Party would be ballot-qualified for the next two elections. Thanks to Doug McNeil for the link.
Wow, that is quite a difference – this illustrates yet another way the US political climate is so screwed up
The difference between these two polls seems to suggest that while a decent number of people are fed up with both major parties, they won’t vote for some shadowy “someone else” figure that they don’t know about. This seems to prove my suspicions that 2014 has the potential to be a good year for the Libertarians and the Greens if they can get their beliefs across to enough potential voters.
It would be nice if the polls from now on were as legit as the PPP’s, but given how badly the political climate is screwed up (definitely agreeing with the previous comment), it’s likely the Democrats and Republicans will do everything they can to prevent such fair polling methods from being used.
Both of the major-party candidates have serious ethical problems, so I’m not surprised that Sarvis is polling well. And he’s extremely well qualified — Dr. Sarvis is a Virginia native, he has a BA in math from Harvard, an MA in economics from George Mason, and a JD from NYU Law. Quite an impressive candidate.