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Poll Shows Sharp Divide in Arizona Over SB 1070

Posted July 25, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

A new poll by the Arizona Republic of people living in Arizona shows a sharp divide over the state’s new anti-immigrant law. Here are some of the poll’s findings:

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed support the law while 36 percent oppose it, according to a poll conducted by WestGroup Research. Nine percent were neutral or didn’t have a view.

Nearly half those polled believe the law has made Latinos more likely to be discriminated against and that the debate has exposed a deeper sense of racism here. A smaller number, 36 percent, reject those ideas….

The Republic’s poll included respondents from a reflective mix of Arizona counties, interviews in Spanish and was weighted to account for the state’s current demographic profile. A quarter of the respondents were Hispanic, in line with estimates of the state population from the Census Bureau. The poll didn’t ask about the legal status of residents here. The poll was conducted between June 30 and July 12 and has a margin of error of 3.89 percentage points.

It suggested that views of SB 1070, which is scheduled to go into effect Thursday, depend heavily on political affiliation, age, income, gender and ethnicity.

Among registered voters, for example, 88 percent of Republicans support the law, compared with 30 percent of Democrats.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said Latinos are more likely now to be discriminated against than they were six months ago, while 36 percent disagreed. By similar margins, nearly half felt the immigration debate has exposed a deeper racism in the community and that people are more likely to wonder about the legal status of someone who looks Latino. Independent voters narrowly agreed with all those sentiments.

Other key poll findings:

• Those with household incomes greater than $50,000 support the law by 2-1 ratios, while those earning less are divided 45 to 44 percent in favor of it.

• Men comfortably support the law, 66 to 28 percent, but women are evenly divided at 44 percent on the issue.

• Hispanics overwhelmingly oppose the law, 76 to 16 percent. Because of the smaller sample size, the margin of error for this group is 7.13 percentage points. Merrill said he doesn’t think answers are skewed by illegal immigrants because they are unlikely to participate in polls anyway.

The poll also found strong opposition to the law by young people. 18-34 year olds opposed the law 52% to 36%.

Tags : arizona, arizona boycott, sb 1070

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