Raleigh, N.C. – North Carolina voters dislike two current state elections laws, according to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute.
Eighty-two percent of voters said they would oppose a proposal to allow 16 and 17 year olds to register to vote in North Carolina. Current law allows them to register. Seventeen percent said they support it, and 1 percent said they do not know.
“Voters strongly disagree with legislation passed by the 2009 General Assembly,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “While the intentions of this legislation may sound noble, politicians passed the law in order to gain access to the names and addresses of part of the population that prior to the change was unavailable.”
There is bipartisan opposition to allowing 16 and 17 year olds to register to vote as Republican voters strongly object to the proposal by a 90 percent-10 percent margin. Unaffiliated (79 percent-21 percent) and Democratic voters (77 percent-22 percent) also oppose the legislation.
Similarly, 58 percent of voters said they oppose allowing unregistered people to register and vote on the same day. Legislation allowing this was passed in 2007. Thirty-nine percent said they support such a proposal, and 3 percent said they do not know. Republican (76 percent-21 percent) and unaffiliated voters (61 percent-38 percent) oppose the idea, while Democratic voters are in support by a 52 percent-45 percent margin.
“Same-day registration bypasses the address verification process that all other voters undergo,” added De Luca. “North Carolina voters seem to be saying they want a system that treats all voters equally.”
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly 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:
“Would you support or oppose a proposal to allow 16 and 17 year olds to register to vote?”
Total Support – 17%
Total Oppose – 82%
Strongly Support – 9%
Somewhat Support – 9%
Somewhat Oppose – 16%
Strongly Oppose – 65%
Do Not Know – 1%
“Would you support or oppose a proposal allowing unregistered people to register and vote on the same day?
Total Support – 39%
Total Oppose – 58%
Strongly Support – 23%
Somewhat Support – 16%
Somewhat Oppose – 14%
Strongly Oppose – 45%
Do Not Know – 3%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 600 registered general election voters in North Carolina was conducted January 19-20 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
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 two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
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Very bad form, the wording of Q1 makes it sound as though the young people were going to be able to vote in the next election instead of pre-registering to be able to vote when they’re 18. Shame on you for not giving people a chance to answer in a way they really MEANT, and for giving those reading this poll a false impression.
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) believes that these students are registering to vote. See this webinar titled “Nc allows 16 –year olds to register to vote published presentation”: http://www.slideshare.net/mmclaughlin1/nc-allows-16-year-olds-to-register-to-vote-published-presentation
The DPI understands that when these students register they don’t have to take any further steps to be eligible to vote.
While these issues have purpose, Civitas ought to look into the State’s worst election law problem, that of our ballot access laws. NC has the nation’s 2nd highest restriction for political parties and is typically the #1 most restrictive for unaffiliated Congressional candidates (requiring in excess of 22,000 for ONE candidate to get on the ballot for Congress in some districts). These laws disallow alternative views and candidates from the two major parties to get on the ballot and therefore disallows voters the ability to exercise their right to vote their conscience, to free speech and association.
What these laws do is either 1) exhaust all the funds an alternative political party has to obtain access to be ballot and effectively undermine any real ability to campaign once on the ballot, 2) ensure that only the most wealthy candidates or organizations (such as the SEANC with their upcoming Family First Party), big money, are able to achieve the goal successfully and still have a reasonable shot. Instead of allowing for grassroots, or allowing everyday citizens be a part of the process it actually depresses them in favor of big money and special interest, while virtually eliminating the right to vote be revoking free choice on the election ballot.