Oct. 3, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Brian Balfour (919) 834-2099
RALEIGH — The Civitas Institute has flash-polled likely voters in Wake County about the two contested races for county commissioner.
The Civitas Flash Poll of 400 registered voters with a margin of error of plus-minus 5 percent was taken Sept. 26, 2012.
District 6 incumbent Betty Lou Ward, a Democrat, led Republican challenger Paul Fitts, 47 percent to 38 percent. For the District 4 candidates, Democrat Caroline Sullivan was ahead of Republican Dale Cooke 46 percent to 39 percent.
In both races, however, 15 percent of those polled were undecided. Civitas election experts note that in local elections voter turnout can be a crucial factor.
The poll also revealed voters’ discontent with the job the board of commissioners is doing. Forty-two percent of the voters disapproved of the commissioners’ performance, and only 25 percent approved.
Text of questions:
Do you approve or disapprove of the job being done by the Wake County Commissioners?
25% Approve
42% Disapprove
33% Not Sure
Wake County residents will also vote in two contested races for County Commissioner. If the first contested election for County Commissioner were today, would you vote for Republican Dale Cooke? Or Democrat Caroline Sullivan?
39% Dale Cooke (R)
46% Caroline Sullivan (D)
15% Undecided
If the other contested election for County Commissioner were today, would you vote for Republican Paul Fitts? Or Democrat Betty Lou Ward?
38% Paul Fitts (R)
47% Betty Lou Ward (D)
15% Undecided
Click here for crosstabs.
Information on future polls will be available at the Civitas Poll Presentation on Oct. 25 in Raleigh.
About the Poll: This poll was conducted by telephone in the voice of a professional announcer. Respondent households were selected at random, using Random Digit Dialed (RDD) sample provided by Survey Sampling, of Fairfield CT. All respondents heard the questions asked identically. The pollster’s report includes the geography that was surveyed, the date(s) interviews were conducted, the number of respondents who answered each question and the theoretical margin of sampling error for each question. Where necessary, respondents were weighted using the most recent US Census estimates for age, gender, ethnic origin and region, to align the sample to the population. Research methodology, questionnaire design and fieldwork for this survey were completed by SurveyUSA of Clifton, NJ.
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.
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