On Thursday, June 5th, we held our latest webinar, “The Route to Transit Ballot Success: Working with Pollsters.” This event was geared towards transit stakeholders, agencies, and campaigns and provided valuable insights into how research can inform planning and advocacy across the transportation sector.

We’re especially grateful to our panelists, Molly O’Shaughnessy, Joey Teitelbaum, and Scott Wilkinson for sharing their expertise on how polling and public opinion research can shape successful transit initiatives. 

While we were able to answer many questions live, you can find responses to the questions that we didn’t get to, below.

Q: What funding resources may rural communities have available for polling research?

One way to save on research is to share data with other agencies in your area and do a combined survey.

Q: If a community/transit agency has not attempted a ballot initiative previously, does the Center for Transportation Excellence provide consultant support? 

Yes! CFTE is always here to provide unbiased guidance and best practices. Beyond that, we are more than happy to make recommendations or introductions for specific consultant needs (like pollsters). 

Q: How can a transit agency leverage local experts for polling and legal with transit-specific knowledge that may be lacking? 

Legal: I don’t think transit knowledge is required, but you need an expert in local / state elections law to help you with ballot language, the process, and knowing what you can and can’t do as an agency.

Polling: I would say, at minimum, you want someone with recent and extensive expertise in voter polling and ballot issues, if they don’t have a great deal of transit-specific experience. If I were running a transit ballot issue campaign, I would rather have an electoral polling expert than a local expert. We are frequently brought in to redo the work of a local expert who works in consumer market surveys, community/member surveys, or a marketing/communications/media firm first and a pollster second. 

Q: The Journal of Public Transit published an article called “Willingness to support transit index: Understanding the impact of political, ideological, and socio-demographic traits on support for public transit.” Are any panelists familiar with that research, and if so, have any insight?

The study’s findings of stronger transit support among more educated, wealthier voters, and more liberal / Democratic voters all make sense given my experience. So does the finding that “Americans see transit more as ‘a way to solve social problems than as a way to get around.’” Transit non-riders are a great source of support for ballot issues, and often they see transit as a social good, a social service for Other People. In the context of passing a ballot issue to fund your system, fine, we will let them think that and take their yes votes! It is the much longer-term responsibility of the local transit agency to communicate the convenience/cost savings/benefits of riding transit. In an election year, we should take all the support we can get. 

Panelist Bios:

Molly O’Shaughnessy, Principal & CEO, EMC Research

*Led polling for the winning 2024 transit ballot measure in Columbus, OH

Molly O’Shaughnessy is Principal and CEO at national opinion research firm EMC Research, with 20 years of experience providing strategic guidance and public opinion research to campaigns, brands, and public agencies. Molly has advised winning ballot measure campaigns for public transit, transit-oriented development, and transit supporting infrastructure; and has conducted rider satisfaction studies, non-rider research, rider and non-rider persona modeling, and built rider research panels for public transportation agencies.  Her research for social marketing and policy efforts – studying behaviors like energy conservation, health care spending, recycling, online privacy, drug use, and pickleball – brings breadth and depth to her work understanding voter decision making on public transit funding. Molly holds a BA in Government from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joey Teitelbaum, Senior Vice President, Research, Global Strategy Group 

*Led polling for the winning 2024 transit ballot measure in Maricopa County, AZ

Joey is a public opinion researcher who conducts polling for advocacy groups, ballot campaigns, and candidates up and down the ballot. She has worked with local, state, and federal candidates across the country, from the mid-Atlantic where she worked with Abigail Spanberger (VA-07) and Brandon Scott (Bal. Mayor); to Arizona where her research has helped guide four three straight Senate wins and flipped the Attorney General position; and out west where she has led research for AG Rob Bonta, Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Katie Porter (CA-47), and Robert Garcia (CA-42).

Joey is proud to have led research on and won a variety of ballot amendments that range from passing paid leave, to solidifying funding for public transit, to criminal justice reform, and codifying abortion rights. Joey is also one of the country’s leading experts on attitudes toward guns and gun violence, having conducted dozens of qualitative and quantitative research projects for Everytown for Gun Safety, Giffords, the Joyce Foundation, and Project Unloaded.

Scott Wilkinson, Founder and CEO, AlphaVu

Scott is driven to help those who build for the public good. He started his career working for elected officials, both in campaigns and policy positions, where he learned the ins and outs of politics and public service. Over the years, he gained experience in the private sector leading initiatives on market research, RFID technology, and biometrics. As he developed a deep understanding of proper data collection and analysis, Scott saw the need for public servants to be equipped with more accurate input to make informed decisions on policies and investments that could improve their communities.

Scott began AlphaVu with a single aim: to uncover a true view of public opinion by understanding people on their own terms.