Civitas Releases Poll on NC Voting Issues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Francis De Luca (919) 834-2099
Francis.DeLuca@NCCivitas.org

RALEIGH –The Civitas Institute has released polling questions probing North Carolina voters’ attitudes on issues dealing with voting and election integrity.

The Civitas Poll of 600 registered North Carolina voters was taken Feb. 21, 24 and 25, and had a margin of error of plus-minus 4 percent.

“From these responses we see that the voting public overwhelmingly supports common sense election reform in the form of voter ID,” said Civitas President Francis X. De Luca. “Further probing show that these changes would actually encourage people to vote and give voters more confidence in election results.”

To see voters’ responses in their own words, click here.

Text of questions*:

1. Do you personally have an official photo ID, such as a driver’s license, an ID card from the DMV, a military ID or a U.S. passport?

   98%     Yes
   2%       No
   1%       Don’t Know

2. Would you favor or oppose a law that requires voters to show government-issued photo identification, such as a driver’s license or passport, before being allowed to cast a vote in an election?

   67%     Total  Favor
   30%     Total Oppose

   60%     Strongly Favor
   8%       Somewhat Favor
   5%       Somewhat Oppose
   25%     Strongly Oppose
   2%       Undecided/Don’t Know

3. Which statement more reflects your beliefs:

   63%     North Carolina should have strict voting laws that insure that only eligible voters can vote, even if it means that some eligible voters have to vote a provisional ballot.

   30%     North Carolina should have less strict voting laws so that everyone can vote even if some ineligible voters are able to cast ballots.

   5%       Don’t Know
   2%       Refused

4. Do you feel that there are any problems with  North Carolina elections such as ineligible voters voting, voter fraud or any other type of problem which could cause citizens to question an election result?

   44%     Yes
   49%     No
   7%       Don’t Know

5. Now, as you may know, North Carolina does not currently require a government-issued photo ID in order to vote.  If in the future a government issued voter ID is required to vote, do you believe it would be more likely to…

   57%     Stop voter fraud
   30%     Prevent eligible voters from casting a ballot
   8%       Have no effect/No difference
   4%       Undecided/Don’t Know
   —         Refused

6. Would a photo ID requirement make you more likely to vote, less likely to vote, or would it make no difference?

   9%       Total More Likely
   3%       Total Less Likely

   6%       Much More Likely
   3%       Somewhat More Likely
   1%       Somewhat Less Likely
   2%       Much Less Likely
   88%     No Difference

7. Will requiring voters to show a photo ID to vote give you more confidence in election results?

   64%     Yes
   35%     No
   1%       Don’t Know

8. In your opinion, and in your own words, what do you think would make voting more secure in North Carolina?

   47%     Photo ID/ Voter ID
   7%       Registration/ Verify registration/ Bring voter registration card
   5%       Availability/ More poll places/ More machines/ Longer hours
   5%       Better machines/ Tamper proof machines/ Electronic voting
   4%       More poll workers/ Qualified poll workers
   4%       Monitoring/ Electronic monitoring of polling places
   3%       Keep illegal immigrants from voting/ Voting only for citizens
   2%       Track residences/ Require address/ Proof of residence
   2%       Eliminate early voting/ Eliminate absentee ballots
   2%       Eliminate electronic voting/ Pencil ballots available
   2%       Information/ Better education/ More informed electorate
   2%       Other
   19%     None/ No problems/ Already secure/ No fraud
   9%       Don’t Know
   1%       Refused

*Because of rounding, percentages may not equal totals.

Click here for crosstabs.

For further discussion of the results, call Civitas President Francis De Luca at (919) 834-2099 or email him at francis.deluca@nccivitas.org.

About the Poll:

This poll of 600 registered voters in North Carolina was conducted Feb 21, 24 and 25, 2013 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered 2012 general election voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past two general elections (2010, 2012) or be newly registered to vote since November 3, 2012.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.”

For more information on Civitas polling, see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

More information on the Civitas Institute is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099.