States
Ranked
By
Size of
Education
Gap		 Overall Poll Results MOST educated voters LEAST educated voters Education Gap Rectangular Callout: How to Read this Chart: In SurveyUSA's most recent election poll from the state of Colorado, Bush is ahead of Kerry by 8 pts overall. A red 8 shows up in the "Overall" column (Red for Republican advantage). Now: In Colorado, among voters who have attended graduate school, Kerry leads by 19 pts. A blue 19 shows up in the "Most educated" column. In Colorado, among voters who have not attended college, Bush leads by 18 pts. A red 18 shows up in the "Least Educated" column. The Education Gap is calculated by subtracting -19 from 18, which equals 37. A 37 shows up in the "Education Gap" column for CO, which reflects the amount by which the most educated voters back Kerry over the least educated voters. If the most educated voters disproportionately back Bush, the Education Gap appears in this column as a negative number. Chart ranked from largest Education Gap to smallest.
1 Maryland 15 41 3 38
2 Colorado 8 19 18 37
3 Oregon 9 32 2 34
4 Kansas 19 5 26 31
5 Maine 2 25 6 31
6 Texas 23 1 24 23
7 New York 23 40 19 21
8 New Jersey 5 21 1 20
9 Alabama 28 15 33 18
10 California 10 20 2 18
11 Illinois 16 30 14 16
12 Washington 7 13 3 16
13 Florida 1 13 2 15
14 Virginia 11 2 17 15
15 North Carolina 3 11 3 14
16 Indiana 19 5 18 13
17 Oklahoma 30 22 33 11
18 Michigan 10 24 14 10
19 Pennsylvania 6 13 3 10
20 Arizona 14 1 10 9
21 Iowa 1 9 6 3
22 Kentucky 19 11 12 1
23 Ohio 1 6 5 1
24 Missouri 2 2 4 -2
25 Rhode Island 20 23 26 -3
26 Georgia 19 12 8 -4
Rectangular Callout: On Average, those who have attended graduate school vote 11 pts more Democratic than those who have not attended any college.
27 Arkansas 5 2 8 -6
28 Nevada 4 6 12 -18
29 South Carolina 13 21 3 -18
30 Tennessee 19 31 3 -28
Average 4 7 3 11
  A blue box indicates that the Democrat, John Kerry, is ahead.
  A red box indicates that the Republican, George W. Bush, is ahead.
  A white box indicates that the two are tied.
  Amount by which most educated are voting more Democratic than least educated.
Respondents who have started college, but have not entered graduate school, are excluded from this analysis.
Data last updated 10/18/04