Polls & Data

The UMass Poll conducts three activities:

Massachusetts Polls

June 6, 2013
Markey with Wide Lead in Massachusetts Senate Race
The results of a new statewide UMass Poll released today by the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows Democratic U.S. Representative Edward Markey with a strong 11-point lead over Republican Gabriel Gomez among likely voters in advance of the Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election scheduled for June 25. Markey and Gomez are contesting the open Senate seat created by John Kerry’s ascension to Secretary of State.

October 9, 2012
Elizabeth Warren Maintains Narrow Lead Over Scott Brown in Massachusetts Senate Race
A new political poll conducted by University of Massachusetts Amherst political scientists finds that Elizabeth Warren is holding a narrow 48 to 46 percent lead over Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Scott Brown among likely voters in the race for Senate in Massachusetts. This lead is within the 5 percent margin of error. Warren has a six-point 49 to 43 percent lead among registered voters, the poll says

December 13, 2011
Mass. Voters See Statewide Improvements for Healthcare but Not for Themselves
A political poll conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst finds that most state residents don’t think their own health care has been improved by the health care reform law approved in Massachusetts in 2006, but nearly four-in-10 say overall health care in the state has improved. A majority of voters also say they’ll neither support nor will punish legislators who voted to legalize casino gambling.

December 1, 2011
Warren Leads Brown Within the Margin of Error in New UMass Poll
A political poll conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst finds that Elizabeth Warren, the leading Democrat in the field of challengers to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, is running even or perhaps ahead of Brown in a potential matchup next fall.

Exit Polls

November 6, 2012
2012 Massachusetts General Election Exit Poll
UMass Poll’s exit poll from the November 6 Massachusetts election shows that the gender gap helped propel Elizabeth Warren to victory in a competitive race against incumbent Senator Scott Brown. The poll shows that women voters preferred Warren to Brown by a margin of 20%, while men split evenly between the two candidates. Brown was also faced with an electorate that looked much different than the one that elected him to office in 2010.

November 2, 2010
2010 Massachusetts General Election Exit Poll
On November 2nd, 2010, UMass students sampled voters leaving their polling places at 18 randomly selected voting precincts throughout the state of Massachusetts. This exit poll was directed by Professor Brian Schaffner and was designed and conducted by students in his honors class “Political Polling and Survey Research.”

National Polling

March 18, 2013
National Poll of Political Issues
Respondents were asked about a variety of topics, including which issues they viewed as most important, about how favorably they view various government officials, and their personal views on a number of hot-topic issues such as minimum wage, gun control, the Voting Rights Act, and immigration. The poll also took a somewhat unique visual approach to a handful of issues questions, showing a random set of respondents images relating to the issue at hand.

Cooperative Congressional Election Study
The UMass Poll is part of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), a large national survey involving cooperation from dozens of academic institutions nationwide.The CCES focuses on measuring voting behavior, public opinion, and political attitudes on a national scale. Associate faculty at the UMass Poll have used the CCES to produce a number of studies on political behavior. This project also allows us to compare voting behavior, opinion, and attitudes in Massachusetts to other states.  More information is available at the Study's website.