Voters in L.A. strongly backed Jerry Brown over Meg Whitman in the race for governor, while supporting Proposition 19’s relaxing of marijuana laws, in contrast with the statewide outcome, according to final results of the exit poll conducted by the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University on Election Day.
The exit poll found that Brown’s advantage was strong across all ethnicities and genders in Los Angeles. Sen. Barbara Boxer easily outpolled Carly Fiorina in all ethnicities and genders. Voters in the San Fernando Valley voted largely in line with the rest of the city, the survey found. Additionally, while Prop. 19 won a strong majority of L.A.’s votes, there was an ethnic divide: White and Asian voters supported the measure, while African American and Hispanic voters both went against the marijuana legalization measure.
“These results show that Angelenos are willing to embrace change through the initiative process, but skeptical of business-world candidates’ vows to shake up the political power structure,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Leavey Center and a professor of political science and Chicana/o studies at LMU.
The results are based on a tally of 2,246 completed surveys from 50 precincts in the city. The margin of error on all questions is +/-3%.
This effort is part of LCSLA’s effort to implement sampling methodology called the “racially stratified homogeneous precinct approach.” This method addresses limitations in standard exit poll sampling that typically has not provided accurate sampling of ethnic groups in urban settings. The exit polls are designed to study the relationships between voting preferences, ethnic relations, policy preferences, community attitudes, government and community action, and quality of life, and investigate the effects of precinct qualities on voting patterns.
More than 100 student volunteers from LMU canvassed precincts throughout the day and entered data for the initial analysis.