This survey was conducted by American Viewpoint, an independent market research firm, for American Farmland Trust and The Trust for Public Lands to gauge public opinion in Wayne County, Ohio about a funding initiative for farmland protection.

Vote Intentions and Core Analysis:

Currently 52% of the registered voters in Wayne County say that they would support the measure. At the same time, voters are very fluid, with a majority of voters neither definitely supporting nor definitely opposing this measure. Voters are, therefore, highly persuadable at this time. Turn-out is very difficult to predict from this data, but it is clear that an effective get-out-the-vote effort will be even more critical in this campaign than in most. Once voters are informed of some of the aspects of the proposed measure and what it is meant to accomplish, support rises to 60%, while opposition remains about the same. Voters fall into roughly three categories: Core Supporters (49% of the voters), Core Opponents (23% of the voters) and the Battleground (28%) which will largely determine if this measure passes of fails. The key hesitations that Battleground voters have in supporting this measure are: Don’t want to increase my taxes / Can’t afford it. 23% Need more information / Need to find out more about it. 22% Money won’t be used properly / Money will be wasted 18%. From this it appears that many can be convinced to support this measure.