SPIA Survey Research Center
The SPIA Survey Research Center is a public opinion research group housed at the University of Georgia. It aims to gather “timely, non-partisan data” about the “political attitudes of Georgia’s citizens.” 1 The University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) established the Survey Research Center in 2016. 1
Contents
The center performs contract work for academic researchers, corporations such as news media outlets, and nonprofit organizations, but not for political parties or candidates. 1
Background
The University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affair (SPIA) established the Survey Research Center in 2016. 1 The organization conducts statewide polls regarding Georgia politics and policy. 1
The university-based center says student engagement is a “cornerstone of our operations.” Courses such as Survey Research Methods and participation in survey research experiments by the center are intended to allow students to get hands-on experience in the field of survey research. 1
The center notes its research has been cited by media outlets such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Politico, MSNBC, Fox News, The Hill, the Associated Press, Georgia Public Broadcasting, WSB, Axios, and Newsweek. 1
Polling and Clients
The SPIA Survey Research Center performs contract work for academic researchers, corporations, and nonprofits. 1 It has worked in conjunction with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government on state and local government entities. 1
The center does not conduct surveys for political parties, candidates, political action committees, or campaigns. 1 Clients include media organizations such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; nonprofits such as the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Association of Realtors, Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, and Georgia Watch; companies such as Jackson EMC and Georgia Power; and government entities such as the office of the Georgia Secretary of State. 1
A September 2024 survey by the SPIA Survey Research Center done for the left-of-center Georgia Budget and Policy Institute found about 15 percent of all Georgians were unable to afford a traffic ticket at some point in their lives, and the rate was more than 20 percent for Black Georgians, as well as those earning between $15,000 and $49,000 per year. It also found that Black Georgians were more than twice as likely as white Georgians to be placed on a payment plan for a traffic ticket they could not pay on time. The survey further found that Georgians of color were more likely to go into debt or face legal consequences including jail time because of unpaid traffic tickets. 2
Leadership
As of 2025, M.V. Trey Hood III was serving as the director of the Survey Research Center at the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. Hood works as a professor of political science at UGA. Hood studies Southern politics and election sciences and specializes in election results, the Electoral College, election security, forecasting, mail-in voting, and voter behavior. He has conducted research into American politics since 1999. 3
Hood has also researched voter ID laws, early in-person voting, election fraud, redistricting, Section 2 Voting Rights Act claims, voter interaction with ballot-marking systems, and the intersection of public opinion and changes to election law. 4