Highlights of Va. exit poll results

Highlights from exit polling in Virginia Tuesday for The Associated Press and television networks:

INDEPENDENTS: About a third of Virginia voters considered themselves independents, and they voted nearly 2-1 in favor of Republican Bob McDonnell for governor.

OBAMA FACTOR: Virginians were split on how they thought Obama was doing in his first year as president. While the majority of voters said Obama was not a factor in their vote, about a quarter of voters said their vote was to express opposition to Obama. About one in 10 voters who supported Obama in 2008 said they voted for McDonnell.

ECONOMY: About eight in 10 voters said they were worried about the direction of the nation's economy, and the majority of those favored McDonnell. About half of Virginia voters said the economy was the issue that mattered most, and slight majority of them favored McDonnell. About a quarter of voters said health care was more important, and the majority favored Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.

TRANSPORTATION: About one in 10 voters said transportation was the most important issue and they favored Deeds by about 2-1.

MCDONNELL'S STRENGTHS: McDonnell did best among men, evangelical Christians, those over 30, those without a college degree and those in rural and most suburban areas.

DEEDS' STRENGTHS: Deeds did best among voters under 30, black voters, working women, those with advanced degrees and those in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

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The exit poll of 2,053 Virginia voters was conducted for AP by Edison Research in a random sample of 40 precincts statewide. Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

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Methodology: http://surveys.ap.org/exitpolls