AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Last week many of you headed to the polls and cast your vote for your respective party or candidate of choice. After casting that ballot, many of you may have also taken part in an election exit poll offered by WTAMU Professor Dr. Dave Rausch.
The final election night results showed Republican Gov. Rick Perry beat Democrat Bill White, 55 to 43 percent. For the more than 400 people who took part in Rausch's online poll his numbers were dead on. Perry had 57 percent, while White garnered 44-percent.
The big trends were on term limits. More than three-fourths of all respondents want term limits for Congress and Governor. Rausch said those results are a little shocking when you consider how those against term limits voted.
"76-percent voted for term limits for Congress, 77-percent for Governor. Which is a shock when you consider that those who voted for term limits...voted for Governor Perry, 95 percent."
The other big item was whether or not the United States and Texas were on the right track. Of those polled, 67-percent said America was on the wrong track. While 45-percent think Texas is headed in the right direction.
"People who think we were heading in the right direction voted for Perry...those who didn't voted for White. For all the national news and voter trends, clearly that was what came out in the election," said Rausch.
This election was also the first election Rausch was able to use Facebook to his advantage. Facebook enabled the professor to use the social networking site to get people voting, he said he received votes from more than 65 Texas counties.
The poll will be used by Rausch in future research, as well as a teaching tool in his classes.
