Global Warming an Important Issue for Undecided Voters New Haven, Conn.

Nearly two out of three undecided voters say that the presidential candidates' positions on global warming will influence their vote in the upcoming election, according to a new national survey released jointly today by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities.

Consistent with other recent polls, the survey found that 48 percent of registered voters said they will vote or are leaning toward voting for Barack Obama, while 39 percent say they will vote or are leaning toward voting for John McCain. Nine percent of registered voters were still undecided as of Oct. 14.

While few undecided voters rated global warming as the single most important issue that will determine their vote, 62 percent of undecided voters, 64 percent of voters leaning toward McCain and 75 percent of voters leaning toward Obama indicated that global warming is one of several important issues that will influence their vote. "Even in the midst of the nation's financial turmoil, global warming remains an important issue for large numbers of voters," said Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale University.

In the race to earn undecided voters' trust on the issue of global warming, the two candidates are in a dead heat. Fifty percent of undecided voters trust John McCain as a source of information about global warming and 51 percent trust Barack Obama. "In the closing days of this election, each of these candidates still has an opportunity to make their best case on global warming to these critical voters," said Edward Maibach of George Mason University.

Surprisingly, however, 45 percent of McCain supporters distrust John McCain as a source of information about global warming, while only 15 percent of Obama supporters distrust their candidate on the issue.

The results come from a nationally representative survey of 2,189 American adults, aged 18 and older. The sample was weighted to correspond with US Census Bureau parameters for the United States. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percent, with 95 percent confidence. The survey was designed by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities and fielded October 8 through October 14 by Knowledge Networks, using an online research panel of American adults.

This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Yale Project on Climate Change and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. Financial support has been generously provided by the Jesse Fink Foundation, Surdna Foundation, 11th Hour Foundation, and the Pacific Foundation.