Raleigh, N.C. – Three-fourths of North Carolina voters support term limits for members of the North Carolina General Assembly.
According to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute, 77 percent of voters support term limits for members of the North Carolina General Assembly while 13 percent oppose doing so. Nine percent said they are undecided.
Among voters with strong opinions, “strongly support term limits” is selected by a margin of more than six to one. Sixty-one percent say they strongly support term limits while only six percent say they strongly oppose.
These percentages have remained mostly unchanged since a December 2009 Civitas poll which found 73 percent of the state’s voters supported term limits for members of the General Assembly. Only 19 percent were opposed.
This appears to be a bipartisan issue as voters of all party affiliations support limiting the terms of state elected officials: Republicans (82 percent), unaffiliated (78 percent), and 73 percent of Democratic voters.
“Term limits for politicians remains a very popular issue for voters,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “Voters, far from wanting to follow Gov. Perdue and suspend elections, think politicians should be term limited to increase turnover in office.”
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:
“Do you support or oppose term limits for members of the North Carolina General Assembly?”
Total Support – 77%
Total Oppose – 13%
Strongly Support – 61%
Somewhat Support – 16%
Somewhat Oppose – 7%
Strongly Oppose – 6%
Undecided/Don’t Know – 9%
Refused – 1%
For the full results and crosstabs, click here.
This poll of 600 likely 2012 general election voters in North Carolina was conducted September 22-25, 2011 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of likely 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 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 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 at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.
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Imposing Term Limits, like “suspending Congressional elections for two years,” are equally repugnant and also equivalent to adding restrictions on early voting, and to imposing new Photo ID requirements for voting: Every one of those actions would reduce my fundamental right as an American citizen to exercise my preferences in binding elections. There are probably as many excellent legislators whom I would wish to return to work for me, term after term, as there are those who do not deserve even a second chance to serve. I admit I feel very confused about the many seemingly contradictory positions I am seeing supported here. Are we really that conflicted about where we stand on this most fundamental American right to government by, of and for ALL of the People?