PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Americans are awash in polls these days as the midterm elections quickly approach. A West Chester University professor, who teaches a course on the statistical methods involved in political polling, assigns the class to conduct its own poll.
The Ram Poll is the brainchild of Laura Pyott, an assistant professor in the math department at West Chester. She said her students ended up with nearly 1,000 undergraduate respondents who answered questions about Pennsylvania’s races for governor and the U.S. Senate.
“We talked to students across the state, students who are undergraduates in the [Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education] system,” Pyott said. “There are currently 10 schools in the state system and we were able to talk to (students) at nine of those 10 schools.”
Results from the Ram Poll showed a healthy lead for the two Democrats, Josh Shapiro, who is running against Republican Doug Mastriano for governor, and John Fetterman, who is running against Republican Mehmet Oz for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pat Toomey.
Dig into the poll data:
Pyott says the poll also asked about the issues important to the respondents.
“The top issues for students in this 2022 election — the top four were education, abortion, health care and the economy. Those really were, regardless of party, those were the ones at the top,” she said.