Pennsylvania Voters Bridge Deep Political Divides, Reduce Polarization in Groundbreaking Deliberative Polling® Event
Pennsylvania Voters Bridge Deep Political Divides, Reduce Polarization in Groundbreaking Deliberative Polling® Event
America in One Room: Pennsylvania brings together a representative sample of registered Pennsylvania voters for a statewide Deliberative Poll in this crucial swing state, revealing surprising common ground and public opinion shifts on issues from immigration to healthcare to democratic reform.
America in One Room: Pennsylvania, a Deliberative Poll coordinated by global problem-solving organization Helena and the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University, today announced results revealing what Pennsylvania voters really think about pressing local and national issues ranging from the state of democracy and elections, to immigration, housing, and foreign affairs.
The landmark Deliberative Polling® experiment gathered a representative sample of 175 registered Pennsylvania voters for a weekend of civic engagement and civil discourse in Philadelphia. The participants answered a questionnaire about 65 policy proposals across domestic and foreign issue areas before and after engaging in deep deliberation on the topics. The deliberations included small group discussions, question-and-answer sessions with bipartisan and nonpartisan issue experts, and plenary sessions featuring leading state and federal policymakers and experts from both sides of the aisle.
The Deliberative Polling® process at America in One Room goes beyond snapshot opinions to reveal an authentic will of the people, giving policymakers access to data about what voters actually think when given balanced information and the opportunity for meaningful discussion. Policymakers who engage with the data can craft policies that truly reflect what constituents want based on an understanding of the tradeoffs and stakes involved. At America in One Room: Pennsylvania, Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton committed to leveraging data related to voting proposals as she works to advance election reform policy in the commonwealth.
“America in One Room is designed to help policymakers understand the true ‘will of the people,’ said Henry Elkus, founder and CEO of Helena, a global problem-solving organization and co-creator of America in One Room. “What happened over four days in Pennsylvania was a deeply practical demonstration of democracy in action, both for Pennsylvania and national legislators to implement policy. Helena will continue working toward a future where deliberative democracy can play a bigger and bigger role in shaping decision-making in the US and abroad.”
The results show dramatic opinion shifts and notable consensus-building across party lines. Most notably, dissatisfaction with American democracy dropped 21 points overall—from 75% to 54%—with Republicans, Democrats, and independents all showing significant improvement in democratic confidence at the end of the weekend.
"When Pennsylvanians were given the space for informed, civil conversation, they consistently depolarized on issues that dominate cable news narratives as hopeless partisan battles," said James Fishkin, Director of Stanford's Deliberative Democracy Lab. "This experiment proves that America's political divisions and opinions are not as intractable as they might seem. Voters, when presented with balanced information and the opportunity to listen to one another, emerged with considered judgments about what needed to be done as well as greater respect for those they disagree with. The results offer a look at what really matters to voters when they think in depth about the issues. In my view, it also offers an inspiring picture of how democracy could actually work better.”
Key findings:
- Immigration: Support for increasing visas for low-skilled workers doubled from 25% to 50%, with Democrats moving from 41% to 69% support and Republicans increasing from 9% to 30%. State-level DACA protections gained significant Republican backing, rising from 18% to 38%.
- Voting Rights: Support for broad voter enfranchisement jumped to 96% (up from 83%), with Republicans increasing their support by 22 points. Democrats increased their support for voter ID requirements, increasing from 48% to 57%.
- Election Integrity: An overwhelming majority of participants supported increases in election integrity, with 77% supporting random ballot audits, and 87% supporting criminal penalties for voter intimidation.
- Healthcare: Rural healthcare initiatives achieved near-unanimous support, with 94% backing loan forgiveness for healthcare workers in underserved areas and 88% supporting tax credits for rural facilities.
- Foreign policy: Support for providing military support to Taiwan in case of Chinese invasion doubled from 35% to 69%, with massive bipartisan increases among both Democrats (40-point jump) and Republicans (30-point jump).
- Education: While trade school subsidies gained overwhelming support (81%), free college tuition support dropped from 59% to 47% as participants weighed budget realities.
- Transformed relationships & Understanding: Perhaps most significantly, 91% of participants reported respecting opposing political viewpoints (up from 72%) following their experience at America in One Room: Pennsylvania and 90% expressed willingness to compromise with political opponents (up from 80%). As a whole, 97% of participants reported that A1R: PA was valuable in helping them clarify their positions on key public policy issues debated.
America in One Room: Pennsylvania is the fifth Deliberative Polling® event organized by Helena in collaboration with Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab. Public Opinion Strategies conducted outreach, selected the representative samples, and administered the questionnaires.
Full results and executive summary are available below:
About America in One Room: About Helena: About the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University: |
