Among the findings of Voter News Service exit polling of Utah voters in Tuesday's election:
YOUNG REPUBLICANS: George W. Bush's victory in Utah was buoyed by young voters. Four out of five voters ages 18-44 voted Republican. Though Bush was favored by all age groups, Al Gore's best showing was among voters 60 and older, perhaps because of the Social Security and Medicare prescription drug plans he touted during his campaign.
INDEPENDENTS: Utah voters who described themselves as independent or "other" favored Bush by a wide margin. Gore and Bush held their own among voters of their own parties, which produced for Bush his strong showing.
INCOME: Bush was favored across all income ranges. But the more voters said they earned, the more likely they were to support Bush.
FINANCIAL SITUATION: Utah voters overwhelmingly were pro-Bush regardless of their financial situation. But those who described their finances as the same or worse as in 1996 were even more likely to support Bush. One positive note for Utah: Nearly half of Utah voters described themselves as better off than four years ago, and four out of 10 said they were at least as good.
THE CLINTON FACTOR: A fifth of Clinton supporters in Utah four years ago abandoned Gore for Bush. Clinton drew poor job- and personal-approval ratings. Those who did approve of the job Clinton has been doing gave Gore only a bare majority of their support.
RELIGION: Nearly three out of four Bush supporters described themselves as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Gore picked up a quarter of the Mormon vote. Other religious influences were nil in the state dominated by Mormons.
NO STRAIGHT TICKET: A quarter of the people who voted Republican in the presidential election also supported Democrat Bill Orton over Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt. That may reflect dissatisfaction among conservative Republicans who were boycotting Leavitt.
Source: Voter News Service survey of 500 voters as they left 15 randomly selected polling places across Utah. Sampling error margin for each result: plus or minus 6 percentage points for all voters, higher for subgroups.
How Utah exit poll was conducted
Voter News Service, a cooperative of The Associated Press, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC, conducted its exit poll in the Utah general election by interviewing 500 voters as they left polling places in 15 precincts statewide Tuesday.
Each poll precinct was picked randomly in a process that was ordered to reflect state geography and past vote by party.
As people left voting booths, VNS interviewers asked them to fill out a confidential questionnaire. Voters were chosen at a set interval — such as every fifth person — so that each voter had an equal chance of being picked.
The results were adjusted to reflect the different probabilities of selecting a precinct and a voter within each precinct, as well as by the observed sex, race and estimated age of voters who refused to participate.
As with any poll, the results could vary because of chance variations in the sample. For this poll, there was one chance in 20 that sampling error would cause the results to vary by more than 5 percentage points either way from the opinions of all voters who participated in the state's election. The error margin was higher for subgroups in the sample.
Polls are subject to other sources of error, such as from question wording or order.