November Granite State Poll Number Ridiculously Close To Primary Night Figure

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The economy dominated concerns among primary voters

Before the primary, StateImpact broke down voter psychology with University of New Hampshire Survey Center Director Andy Smith.  (You can read the full post here.)  One of the things his WMUR Granite State Poll found back in November was that 63 percent of voters said the combined issue of the economy and jobs was their top concern.  The budget deficit was a distant second at 10 percent, and taxes were practically an afterthought, with three percent of voters noting they were their major concern.

Looking back on primary night, it looks like Smith’s numbers were right on the money.

As primary results (and the attendant analyses) were rolling in, NPR’s “It’s All Politics” liveblogger Mark Memmot reported:

“‘The economy was the overwhelming concern for New Hampshire voters today — 61 percent said it was the single most important issue shaping their vote, and 68 percent said they are very worried about the direction of the U.S. economy,’ the Pew Research Center’s Michael Dimock reports. ‘Mitt Romney won, overwhelmingly, among these voters.'”

So in the weeks between the late November Granite State Poll gauging voter concerns and primary night, New Hampshire voters remained remarkably consistent.  And the difference between what Pew figured for voter sentiment on primary night and what the Survey Center calculated more than six weeks ago was comfortably nestled within the standard margin of error.