2012 robo-polling in Iowa?

A computerized voice was at the other end of the land line, asking the person who picked up the call at 10:02 p.m. central time whether they’d answer a few questions.  The responses are not recorded by voice-recognition software, but the respondent had to hit numbers on their home phone to answer the questions. 

 Here are those questions:

Are you at least 18?

Have you ever held elected office?

Are you likely to vote in 2012?  (The respondent is given a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being absolutely yes and 6 being absolutely won’t vote)

Did you vote for Obama? 

Are you likely to vote for Obama in 2012? 

The respondent is next asked to identify which of the following issues is of top concern:  the federal deficit, jobs, border security, the Tenth Amendment, health care or the Second Amendment.

Next, the computerized voice reads a list of political figures, asking the respondent to rank the person on the 1 through 6 scale with 1 being favorable and 6 being you’ve never heard of the person.

The first person on that list was Ann Coulter.  The computerized voice asked next for an opinion about Governor (garbled name). The recording skipped or something and it could have been any governor.

The other names on this list were very interesting.  The next was Governor Rick Perry followed by Governor Mark Sanford.

That was it for the list of names.  Then came a two-part question: Are you likely to support a candidate with a strong record of making tough decisions to balance budgets? Would it influence your vote if that candidate had been in office for 25 years?

Rick Perry was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives and began his first term there in 1985 — 25 years ago. The survey respondent was given the 1 through 6 scale on that 25 year thing, with one having a negative impact; four no impact and six more likely.

The final questions were probing for more information about the respondent, first seeking to gauge the age group in which the respondent fell (18-30; 31-40; 41-50; 51-65 or over 65).

The last question asked for employment status, ranging from employed full-time to looking for work.

The call came from the DC area code: 202-670-1952.