New poll shows public opinion on Sheriff and swine flu
Reported by: Christen Bejar

Last Update: 10/27 7:36 pm

PHOENIX, AZ – Results from a statewide poll on Tuesday showed dramatic numbers regarding how Arizona residents feel about a variety of topics such as the performance of public officials and how many plan to get a swine flu vaccine.

The poll was conducted by Cronkite/Eight from October 22nd to the 25th. About 652 registered Arizona voters participated and were asked varying questions about Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Governor Jan Brewer, a new health care bill, and the swine flu vaccine.

According to the poll, about 61 percent of Maricopa County voters favored Arpaio’s performance in his post as sheriff. Thirty-four percent disapproved of the sheriff on some level and four percent remained with no opinion.

Poll takers also showed about two-thirds majority opinion that believed that the government was wrong in taking away the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office ICE authority with the arrests of undocumented immigrants.

Another Maricopa County official also got high marks for his performance. County Attorney Andrew Thomas got a 44 percent approval rate out of the 64 percent of poll takers who shared an opinion about him. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard also received a high approval rating of 55 percent of voters.

Governor Jan Brewer’s numbers were surprisingly split 50/50 in the approval and disapproval ratings of how well the governor does her job. However, 22 percent of the polled individuals claimed that they didn’t know enough about Brewer to evaluate her performance as governor.

One fact the poll uncovered was that a majority of Arizona’s voters were not familiar with the Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett and State Treasurer Dean Martin. About 69 percent of those polled didn’t know enough about Bennett to rate him and an additional 50 percent could not rate Martin for the same reasons.

Regarding U.S. legislation, the poll revealed that 67 percent of Arizona voters wanted a vote to be held on a new health care reform bill this year. The amount of voters who disagreed made up about 30 percent of poll takers and three percent remained undecided.

When asked about whether or not the bill should include a public health care option, 49 percent were against the measure and 44 percent were for it.

As the swine flu has become a major concern for Americans this year, poll takers were asked whether or not they would get the vaccine.

Only 41 percent said that they would indeed get the H1N1 vaccination when it became available. However, 58 percent of the participants said that they would get a flu shot this year.

www.abc15.com