UMass Amherst/WCVB Poll Finds Bay State Residents Evenly Split on ‘Psychedelics,’ Majority Support Eliminating MCAS as High School Graduation Requirement and Other Ballot Questions

A majority of Massachusetts residents support four of the five questions put to voters on Election Day, including eliminating the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests as a requirement for high school graduation, and are evenly split on whether certain psychedelic substances should be legalized and regulated, according to a new University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB Poll.

The poll of 700 residents of the commonwealth conducted Oct. 3-10 also found that 75% of respondents are concerned about the possibility of violence in the U.S. associated with the 2024 presidential election.

“With only a few weeks to go until Election Day, voters in the commonwealth are poised to make significant legislative changes through the ballot process with majorities of voters expressing support for ending the MCAS requirement to graduate (53%), allowing unionization for transportation network drivers (58%) and increasing the minimum wage for tipped workers (61%),” says Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll. “Across these three questions, most residents have seemingly made up their minds, with an average of only 13% of respondents still undecided as to these potential changes. For supporters of these ballot questions, Election Day cannot come soon enough.”

Question 2 – Eliminating MCAS for High School Graduation

Most respondents surveyed support eliminating the requirement that a student pass the MCAS tests to receive a high school diploma.

“A majority of voters are saying there should be exceptions to the rule that Massachusetts students must pass the MCAS to graduate from high school. Fifty-three percent are in favor, with 36% opposed and 11% not sure,” La Raja says. “But voters seem split on the likely impact. Thirty-one percent say students will be able to move into the workforce more quickly without the MCAS requirement, while 29% say it will result in declining educational standards in the state. Sixteen percent say it will do both. Women (61%) seem much more in favor of eliminating the requirement than men (44%).”

Nteta adds, “As Bay Staters are bombarded with advertisements, phone calls and emails on Question 2, a stunning few are aware of the positions of groups and prominent elected officials on the future of the MCAS in the state. Majorities of respondents indicate that they don’t know the position of Gov. Maura Healey, the state’s secretary of education or the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. In what is likely music to the ears of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, a plurality of residents (44%) correctly identifies the teachers union as in favor of Question 2.”

Support for Ballot Initiative Process

By an overwhelming margin of 76% to 4%, the survey shows Massachusetts residents support the use of ballot questions to pass constitutional amendments and make state laws – a power granted to voters since 1919.

“The nation’s founders may not have liked direct democracy, but Massachusetts voters do. Three of four voters support the ballot initiative process, which gives them the power to bypass the Legislature and submit their own laws and constitutional amendments,” La Raja notes. “Critics of the process say voters don’t have enough information or expertise to make policies this way. But 43% of Massachusetts residents disagree with this argument, while only 28% agree (and 29% don’t have an opinion). But paradoxically, 41% of respondents agree that the process is controlled by special interests, and roughly the same percentage also believe the wording of ballot questions is too complicated.”

Nteta adds, “In what could be read as a stunning rebuke of the work of the state Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey, close to 8 in 10 residents support the use of ballot questions to make laws and a similar proportion believe that the ballot process is a means by which voters can address issues that elected officials fail to address. In a year in which both the Legislature and Gov. Healey came under fire for the lack of movement on housing, immigration and climate change, future elections may feature a growth in the use of the ballot process to help solve problems that the state’s elected officials are not interested or inclined to tackle.”

Methodology

This University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB Poll of 700 Massachusetts respondents was conducted by YouGov Oct. 3-10 and weighted to the sampling frame using propensity scores. The sampling frame is a politically representative “modeled frame” of U.S. adults subsetted on Massachusetts residents, based upon the American Community Survey (ACS) public use microdata file, public voter file records, the 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration supplements, the 2020 National Election Pool (NEP) exit poll, and the 2020 CES surveys, including demographics and 2020 presidential vote.

The cases and the frame were combined, and a logistic regression was estimated for inclusion in the frame. The propensity score function included age, gender, race/ethnicity, years of education and homeownership. The propensity scores were grouped into deciles of the estimated propensity score in the frame and post-stratified according to these deciles.

The weights were then post-stratified on homeownership, the 2020 presidential vote choice, as well as a four-way stratification of gender, age (4-categories), race (4-categories) and education (4-categories), to produce the final weight.

The margin of error of this poll is 4.8%.