Raleigh, N.C. – A majority, 67 percent, of unaffiliated North Carolina voters support limiting the terms of state House and Senate leaders, according to a new poll released by the Civitas Institute.
Sixty-seven percent of unaffiliated voters said they would support amending the North Carolina Constitution to limit anyone from serving more than two terms in a leadership position. Twenty-six percent said they would oppose it and seven percent said they do not know or have no opinion.
A March 2011 Civitas poll found similar support (76 percent support – 16 percent oppose) among registered general election voters in North Carolina for term limits.
“Unaffiliated voters are in strong support of limiting terms for the leadership of the legislature,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “Voters are showing strong support for term limits in general and this is the latest example of that support.”
House Bill 61, “Speaker/Pro Tem Term Limits,” may be debated when legislators return in mid-September for the constitutional amendments session. The bill is currently in the Senate for consideration.
The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.
Full Text of Question:
“The legislature may allow North Carolinians to vote on amending the state Constitution to limit legislative leaders to two terms, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. Would you support or oppose amending the North Carolina Constitution to limit anyone from serving more than two terms in a leadership position?”
Total Support – 67%
Total Oppose – 26%
Strongly Support – 45%
Somewhat Support – 22%
Somewhat Oppose – 14%
Strongly Oppose – 12%
Don’t Know/No Opinion – 7%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 400 unaffiliated general election voters in North Carolina was conducted August 15-16 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past three general elections (2006, 2008, 2010) or be newly registered to vote since November 2, 2010.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 400 interviews (registered voters) will be within +/-4.9% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every unaffiliated voter in North Carolina who had voted in at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.
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