Southern Colorado says Romney won debate, but is it skewed?
Posted: 10.17.2012 at 1:12 PM
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SOUTHERN COLORADO -- A poll on FOX21News.com following the second presidential debate shows 59 percent of voters thought Republican challenger Mitt Romney outdueled incumbent President Barack Obama.

But is that an accurate representation of what the country thought? Probably not.

CNN poll, which was made up of 457 registered voters, showed Obama won. Roughly 46 percent of those voters thought so, compared with just 39 percent who thought Romney won. Many were undecided.

A third of CNN's voters identified themselves as Democrats, and a third identified themselves as Republicans. Their poll has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

In the first debate, 67 percent of CNN's voters thought Romney won.

Other news organizations such as Fox NewsMSNBC and CBS News all also showed wins for Obama Tuesday night.

Although there is no way to tell where the 5,126 people who voted in FOX21News.com's poll are from or what their political affiliations are, the results align with voter turnout from 2008.

In the FOX21News.com poll, 59 percent said they thought Romney did better, while 37 percent said Obama won. Four percent said neither candidate won.

In the 2008 presidential election, 59 percent of El Paso County voters chose John McCain over Obama, while the now-president received 40 percent. Pueblo County was much different, with 56 percent voting for Obama and only 42 percent voting for McCain.

McCain had big wins in Teller, Custer, Fremont, Otero, Crowley, Bent and Baca counties. Obama won Huerfano and Las Animas Counties to round out the southern Colorado viewing area.

Overall, about 57 percent of the 384,867 voters who voted in FOX21 News' viewing area in 2008 voted for McCain, while about 42 percent voted for Obama. The 2008 voter turnout numbers for southern Colorado correlate closely with the 5,126 people who took the FOX21News.com poll in terms of party affiliation.

Based on those numbers, it's reasonable to think that the FOX21News.com poll sample consists of people who said Romney won because they plan to vote for him on Nov. 6, not necessarily because he performed better in Tuesday night's debate.

In 2008, Obama got 52 percent of the popular vote. So while southern Colorado's voters don't represent the country as a whole, it appears based on 2008 that the FOX21News.com poll is an accurate representation of who southern Colorado will vote for in 20 days, even if that wasn't the direct question.

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