Today Civil Beat published the third in our series this week comparing the attitudes of voters and non-voters in Hawaii. Rail was one of the key Hawaii issues we polled about.

The rolled-up results of all registered voters are essentially the same as our survey of likely voters two months ago — around 35 percent in favor and 55 percent opposed. Non-voters are slightly more supportive of rail than likely voters, which gives some credence to what one rail consultant/blogger has consistently argued for weeks.

But there were actually three voter groups in our analysis, and the third one provides a curveball. We found that 2008-only voters — largely young, liberal Obama supporters — were less likely to back the project than everybody else.

What about the idea that young people like transit and old people don’t want to pay for a system they’ll never use? Or the suggestion that it’s conservatives and Republicans that oppose big government projects? These poll results seem to contradict those assumptions.

The fine print: The survey included nearly 1,200 voters, but just 172 who participated in the 2008 General Election but have not otherwise voted, meaning that subgroup has a margin of error of +/- 7.5 percentage points. We used chi-square analysis to determine which results were statistically significant. The stronger-than-average opposition to rail from 2008-only voters passed the test.

Anecdotally, the first thing that comes to mind for me is last week’s Honolulu City Council meeting in Kapolei. There were two young women standing near the podium for a while, one of whom eventually testified against the rail line of credit bill.

Both women held similar signs. On one side, a request to have genetically modified food labeled — a cultural touchstone for the young and liberal. And on the back of the signs were puns about HART going broke. That’s what you see in the photo above.

Read today’s article: Civil Beat Poll – Hawaii Opposes Gay Marriage, Marijuana, Rail