Civitas Poll: Marshall Viewed Favorably, Yet Still Relatively Unknown to Voters

Raleigh, N.C. – Though viewed favorably by 29 percent of North Carolina voters, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is still largely unknown to voters.

Twenty-nine percent of voters said they have a favorable opinion of Marshall while nine percent said they view her negatively.  Twenty-two percent said they have heard of her but have no opinion, and 40 percent have never heard of her.

Just 10 percent of voters have an opinion of State Auditor Beth Wood: seven percent favorable, three percent unfavorable.  Seventy-five percent of voters have never heard of her, the highest of any Council of State office, along with 14 percent who said they have heard of her but do not have an opinion.

Eight percent of voters hold a favorable opinion of State Treasurer Janet Cowell.  Three percent view her negatively and 15 percent said they have heard of her but do not have an opinion.  Seventy-four percent of voters said they have never heard of Cowell.

“Despite serving in public office for a number of years and campaigning for U.S. Senator, voters are still mostly unaware of who Elaine Marshall is,” said Civitas Institute Communications Director Katie Trout.  “Council of State races are not well known to a majority of voters in North Carolina.”

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 Questions:

“Now I am going to read you a list of people and organizations active in politics. After I read each name, please tell me if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of that person or organization. If you have never heard of them, just tell me and we’ll go on to the next one.”

 

Elaine Marshall

Total Favorable – 29%

Total Unfavorable – 9%

Heard of/No Opinion – 22%

Never Heard of – 40%

 

Beth Wood

Total Favorable – 7%

Total Unfavorable – 3%

Heard of/No Opinion – 14%

Never Heard of – 75%

 

Janet Cowell

Total Favorable – 8%

Total Unfavorable – 3%

Heard of/No Opinion – 15%

Never Heard of – 74%

For the full results and crosstabs, click here.

This poll of 600 likely 2012 general election voters in North Carolina was conducted October 17-18 2011 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of probable 2012 general election voters in North Carolina.  For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in 2006 or 2008 or be newly registered to vote since November 5, 2008. (November 5 is the day after the election)

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.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in the 2006 or 2008 general elections or is newly registered since November 5, 2008.

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