To:

Interested Parties

From:
Daniel Gotof, Celinda Lake, and Olivia Myszkowski, Lake
Research Partners
Re:
Date:

Recent Survey Findings on Iowa Judicial Retention Elections
October 11, 2016

A new statewide survey on the upcoming judicial retention elections
reveals support for Supreme Court Justices Cady, Hecht, and Appel
outpacing opposition.1 While awareness of the retention elections is
low, those voters who are most aware and certain to vote support the
Justices in even greater numbers.

Lake Research
Partners
1101 17th
Street NW,
Suite 301
Washington,
DC 20036
Tel:
202.776.9066



Fully 41% of Iowa voters support retaining the three Justices, just
16% are opposed, and the remaining number are undecided or
decline to state a position. Not only do supporters outnumber
opponents by more than 2.5-to-1, but intensity of support bests
intensity of opposition as well (27% of voters are strong
supporters of retention, while just 10% are strong opponents).



Awareness of the judicial retention elections is typically low at
just 46%, and while 57% of voters say there are almost certain to
vote in these elections, a substantial minority of voters
acknowledges that their likelihood is something less than that:
23% say they will probably vote, 8% say their chances are 50-50,
and the remaining number say they will either probably (7%) or
definitely (2%) not participate.
o Among those who are almost certain to vote in the judicial
retention elections, support for the Justices is even higher,
with 48% saying they will vote to retain, 19% opposing
retention, and 31% undecided.
###

Fax:
202.776.9074
Partners
Celinda Lake
Alysia Snell
David Mermin
Dr. Robert G.
Meadow
Daniel Gotof
Joshua Ulibarri

1

Lake Research Partners designed and administered this survey, which was conducted by telephone
using professional interviewers. The survey reached a total 600 likely 2016 voters in Iowa. The survey was
conducted September 6th - 11th, 2016. Margin of error: +/- 4.1%.