The survey measuring voter attitudes comes at a time when the eyes of political observers are focused on Pennsylvania, a perennial battleground state that is currently supplying the backdrop for high-visibility races for the governorship and the U.S. Senate.
The timing of this survey-the first collaborative survey venture between Lehigh and Muhlenberg-also dovetails with a number of recent news reports, which indicate growing concerns about e-voting that include insecure machinery and improper procedures to safeguard the sanctity of the vote.
In late September alone, a widely publicized report from Princeton University computer expert Ed Felten showed that a hacker with basic knowledge of computers was able to break into and alter vote totals on a Diebold voting machine in less than a minute. And, just last week, emergency legislation was proposed by U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., and John Kerry, D-Mass., to provide paper ballots for voters who are reluctant to use new electronic voting machines.
The Lehigh University/Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion survey sampled more than 523 households throughout the state from Sept. 18-25. It has a margin of error of 4.3 percent.
A full report of survey findings can be viewed in
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