AARP To Track National Voting of the 50(plus) Population

11/5/2002

From: Steve Hahn, Barbara Foelber or Muriel Cooper, 202-434-2560, all of AARP

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 -- For the first time in its history, AARP will conduct national Election Day polling of voters 45 years of age and older to determine what issues impacted their voting decisions in this years' mid-term Congressional elections.

In addition, AARP will be closely monitoring election results from all 50 states allowing up-to-the-minute commentary and analysis of today's results. AARP will be temporarily converted into "Election Central" on Tuesday, Nov. 5, putting to use its extensive political intelligence and broadcast operations.

AARP will also track which domestic issues resonate the most with older voters in a dozen hotly contested Congressional races in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, South Carolina and South Dakota.

The non-partisan organization will track the balloting trends of the nation's most active voters and will provide those results to the news media as they become available beginning mid-afternoon. The exit polling, conducted by ICR Research of Media, Pennsylvania, in partnership with AARP's own research group, will gather data from all 50 states and identify possible links between the voting behavior of the target populations and issues of key importance to this group.

Pre-election research indicates that prescription drug coverage in Medicare and Social Security are of critical importance to those 50 and older. The research will reveal how important these two domestic issues are to the overall results in today's races.

"We are not conducting research into how people voted, but rather to ascertain the important links between the issues of the Baby Boomer and Greatest Generations and the candidates," said Bill Novelli, executive director and CEO.

"We undertook the most widespread voter education campaign of any organization in the country this year. It included voter guides, TV advertising on issues critical to our members, mailings to nearly 9 million members, 750,000 calls to get-out-the-vote, a comprehensive Election 2002 Web site, a candidate pledge on prescription drugs, and voter forums around the country," Novelli said.

AARP is a non-profit, non-partisan membership organization for people 50 and over. AARP provides information and resources; advocate on legislative, consumer and legal issues; assist members to serve their communities; and offer a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for our members. These benefits include AARP Webplace at www.aarp.org, AARP Mondern Maturity and My Generation magazines, the monthly AARP Bulletin and Segunda Juventud, a quarterly, bilingual newspaper. Active in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islans, AARP celebrates the attitude that age is just a number and life is what you make it.

Media Interested in the national and state specific polling data, should call the contacts. In addition, satellite news interviews are available from 3 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. To schedule an interview time, please contact AARP Media Relations at 202-434-2560.