Native Vote Washington conducted a poll of 600 American Indian and Alaska Native voters from 30 states including Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and Oklahoma. The poll examined voter preference in the Presidential race between Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama and Republican candidate Senator John McCain. The poll also examined voter attitude with respect to right track versus wrong track. The sample was drawn from a pool of likely voters and those who had already voted.
Among Native voters in the NVW poll, Democratic candidate Barack Obama leads his Republican opponent, John McCain by 83 points. Among Natives who have already cast ballots, Obama leads his opponent by 85 points.
Among Native American men, Obama leads by 86 points. Among women, Obama leads by 80 points, leading us to conclude that there is no significant gender gap between Native female and male voters. Obama does well across all age ranges but performs best among younger Native voters. Among Natives ages 18 to 34, Obama leads by 91%; while among Natives ages 35 to 54, Obama leads by 83%; and among Natives ages 55 and over, Obama leads by 84%.
Among Washington Native voters, Obama leads by 91 points. Surprisingly, in Arizona, Obama leads by 60 points. Oklahoma appears to be McCain’s strongest state where he runs even with Obama at 42%. In the battleground state of New Mexico, Obama has a huge 72 point lead. Finally, in Montana, Obama leads by 94 points with more Undecideds (3%) than McCain (2%).
If the election were being held today, would you vote for (or have already voted for):
Obama (%) McCain (%) Undecided/Other (%)
Overall 89 6 5
Already Voted 95 4 1
Men 91 5 4
Women 87 7 6
Ages 18-34 87 7 6
Ages 35-54 89 6 5
Ages 55+ 90 6 4
Obama McCain Undecided/Other
WA 94 3 2
AZ 74 14 12
NM 85 13 2
OK 42 42 16
MT 94 2 3
At this moment, do you believe our country is on the right track or the wrong track?
Right Track Wrong Track Unsure
Overall 3% 87% 10%
Methodology: The Native Vote Washington Poll contacted over 700 adult Native Americans attending the National Indian Education Association annual convention in Seattle on October 23-25. The Poll excluded “somewhat likely” as well as “not likely” and “Not Native” voter respondents. The Poll surveyed Native Americans from 30 states by direct in-person contact using volunteers and NVW staff in attendance at the NIEA convention. Survey respondents were chosen at random from a registered convention attendance figure of approximately 3,000 attendees. Adults in each sample were adjusted as needed to census proportions of sex and age. The margin of sampling error for adults and likely voters is plus or minus 4 percentage points. For smaller subsets such as States, the margin of error may be greater.
