Recently reconstituted data from 1981 show that Iowans strongly support some items, such as unreasonable search and equality for the sexes, being protected in the United States constitution whereas others, such as the right for life to begin at fertilization, should not. These results come from IPOL’s efforts to recover lost data from historical Iowa Polls, starting with Iowa Poll #249, a random sample survey of 1021 Iowans from October 1981. Specifically, the question asked Iowans “For each of the following statements, tell me if you think it should or should not be part of the United States Constitution”. The right to no unreasonable search received the highest support, with 84% of Iowans saying it should be in the Constitution. In contrast, 44% of respondents indicated that the right to life beginning at fertilization should be in the constitution. Between these two extremes, 78% supported equality between the sexes, 72% supported free speech, and 60% supported keep and bear arms being in the Constitution.

Perhaps surprisingly given today’s political divisions on many issues, we found that opinions on these items did not vary more than ten percentage points across Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. The biggest difference was for the question about whether life begins at fertilization, which was favored for inclusion by 49% of Republicans and by 43% of Democrats. The second biggest difference was for the question about whether equality should be guaranteed between the sexes, this was supported by 74% of Republicans and by 80% of Democrats. Particularly notable was the question about the right to keep and bear arms, there was no difference between the parties, with 59% of both Republicans and Democrats supporting inclusion.

Iowa Poll #249, conducted by the Des Moines Register, was administered to a random sample of Iowans in October 1981. In addition to the questions about the constitution, the survey asked respondents their opinions on a wide variety of topics, including the Iowa Caucuses, the Iowa gubernatorial race, Iowa history, the Ten Commandments, and what Iowans were least thankful for in 1981. Understanding Iowans’ past opinions on these topics can help us understand how perspectives have changed and what ideas have remained popular. IPOL has also been working with UI Libraries and the Des Moines Register to restore data from dozens of Iowa Polls from the 1960s to early 1980s. More information about the project can be found here. We are working to release a full report on our findings as we analyze additional questions.