Question:
Obama



Romney



Don’tknow /Undecided



Refused



N*

Feb. 23 – March 1, 2012Registered voters

60%



36%



4%



1%



527



Obama



Santorum



Don’tknow /Undecided



Refused



N*

Feb. 23 – March 1, 2012Registered voters

66%



27%



6%



1%



527


Poll Demographics

About this Poll
The Western New England University Polling Institute conducted telephone interviews with 576 adults ages 18 and older drawn fromacross Massachusetts using random-digit-dialing Feb. 23 through March 1, 2012. The sample yielded 527 adults who said they areregistered to vote in Massachusetts. Unless otherwise noted, the figures in this release are based on the statewide sample of registeredvoters.The Polling Institute dialed household telephone numbers, known as “landline numbers,” and cell phone numbers for the survey. Inorder to draw a representative sample from the landline numbers, interviewers first asked for the youngest male age 18 or older whowas home at the time of the call, and if no adult male was present, the youngest female age 18 or older who was at home at the time of the call. Interviewers dialing cell phone numbers interviewed the respondent who answered the cell phone after confirming threethings: (1) that the respondent was in a safe setting to complete the survey; (2) that the respondent was an adult age 18 or older; and(3) that the respondent was a resident of Massachusetts. The landline and cell phone data were combined and weighted to reflect theadult population of Massachusetts by gender, race, age, and county of residence using U.S. Census estimates for Massachusetts.All surveys are subject to sampling error, which is the expected probable difference between interviewing everyone in a populationversus a scientific sampling drawn from that population. The sampling error for a sample of 576 adults is +/- 4.1 percent, and for asample of 527 registered voters is +/- 4.3 percent, at a 95 percent confidence interval. Thus if 55 percent of registered voters said theyapproved of the job that Barack Obama is doing as president, one would be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 50.7 percent and 59.3 percent (55 percent +/- 4.3 percent) had all Massachusetts voters been interviewed, rather than just a sample.Sampling error increases as the sample size decreases, so statements based on various population subgroups are subject to more error than are statements based on the total sample. Sampling error does not take into account other sources of variation inherent in publicopinion studies, such as non-response, question wording, or context effects.