Executive Summary

A new survey released today finds unmarried women committed to change, engaged in this election, but their commitment to voting lags behind the rest of the country. If this trend continues, progressives will leave millions of votes on the table in November.

It is almost impossible to understand the “women’s vote” without understanding the role marital status plays in political decision-making. Marital status not only drives how women vote, but whether they vote.

The poll, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and commissioned by the Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund, also finds significant economic stress among unmarried women, a consistent finding. This and other research looking at this group leaves little doubt that the economy is the key issue to engage these voters.

Key Findings

• Unmarried women deliver a 58 to 29 percent margin to Barack Obama and a 61 to 29 percent margin to Democratic candidates running in a named trial heat for Congress.
• Unmarried women are engaged in this election, but not to the same degree as the rest of the population. Half (51 percent) describe themselves as more enthusiastic about voting, 31 percent as less. Among all voters, the figures are 56 percent and 29 percent, respectively. Moreover, 64 percent of registered unmarried women describe their interest in the election as a 10 on a 10 point scale, compared to 73 of the total electorate.
• Even more than most voters, unmarried women are focused on the economy. Moreover, their economic concerns are immediate. Asked to describe economic changes that would be most helpful, 40 percent identify lowering the price of gas and 38 percent say lowering the cost of health care.

Methodology
This survey was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, and sponsored by the Women’s Voices. Women Vote Action Fund. The survey results are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 500 registered unmarried women. In order to amplify the sample size, this report includes 281 interviews from a Democracy Corps and NPR survey. The total margin of error for the entire sample of 781 respondents is +/- 3.51 points. The battleground is defined here as the states of Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.