The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Poll is a go-to source for cutting-edge, non-partisan insights into California's public opinion. As the oldest public policy research center in the state, IGS tackles the most pressing issues, from immigration to abortion, that are shaping America today.
The IGS Poll was founded by Dr. Jack Citrin, Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley, in 2011 and has since been expanded by Mark DiCamillo, Director of the IGS Poll. It was created to identify issues that extend across party lines, contributing to discourse and public policy to form and implement solutions. DiCamillo is a leading authority on polling in California, and he manages the execution of each poll and presents their findings to the public.
“We go into topics such as sources that voters use to get information about politics, satisfaction with the way democracy is working in California, expanding voter access to underrepresented voting populations, digital threats to democracy, gun violence, abortion rights, immigration, water policies, climate change and the extreme heat,” DiCamillo said. “We’re covering a broad range of issues and trying to do it in a very nonpartisan way.”
To ensure the poll accurately represents California’s population, the IGS Poll uses emails from voter files to disseminate polls to voters. A large sample size is necessary to capture variations in opinion across different regions of California, such as the Central Valley or the Bay Area, and shape them to match known voter characteristics.
The IGS Poll also provides valuable resources for research conducted at UC Berkeley. Faculty members and research centers, such as the Possibility Lab and the Othering and Belonging Institute, are able to propose relevant topics for the poll to investigate at a reduced cost. This makes the IGS Poll an efficient and cost-effective way for researchers to collect high-quality, representative data, thus supporting a wide range of academic studies across the university.
The influence of the IGS Poll extends beyond just UC Berkeley. Its findings often garner media coverage from major outlets, which helps to shape political conversations across the state. The data collected by the IGS Poll has informed key discussions on California public policy by providing policymakers, journalists, and the public with reliable insights into voter opinions.
“A lot of media attention is given to the polls. It’s reported on initially, then by the LA Times, and then it gets out into the general statewide press,” said DiCamillo.
For example, IGS polling for the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund explored the threats that AI is presenting in politics, he said. The results of that poll were used in legislation to regulate AI, which has been approved by the Assembly and the State Senate and is now going to the Governor.
“That is the first attempt in the country to regulate AI specifically as it relates to elections,” DiCamillo said. “That was a poll topic that we covered fairly in-depth.”
The IGS Poll is currently developing the questionnaire for its next polls, which will be conducted through September and October. It will poll on issues relevant to the 2024 election cycle.
“In this current poll, we’re asking voters if they have a clear enough opinion on where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on the issues,” said DiCamillo. “We’re also going to poll on the U.S. Senate race and several of the state ballot propositions.”
The UC Berkeley IGS Poll is in a unique position to conduct this research, having run polls on Harris’s job performance and approval ratings as both Vice president and attorney general. With the findings of the polls influencing discourse, politics and public policy, the research it conducts during the 2024 election cycle will be critically relevant.