June 4, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Francis De Luca (919) 834-2099 Francis.deluca@nccivitas.org
Half of NC Voters Never Saw or Heard about Child Molester Ad
RALEIGH – The latest Civitas Institute Poll includes North Carolina voters’ views on two of the candidates for the state Supreme Court, Associate Justice Robin Hudson and Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge Eric Levinson.
When asked which high court candidate they would vote for, “59 percent of the respondents were undecided,” said Civitas President Francis X. De Luca. “It is evident that most voters don’t know the candidates, or don’t know enough about them, even though over $1.5 million was spent on advertising during the May primary. That is yet more evidence that the removal of party labels from judicial ballots robs voters of vital information.”
Most of the advertising in the May primary was spent by outside groups, including an ad citing Hudson’s decision in a case concerning child molesters. Despite over $1 million in spending on this ad, only 54 percent of voters said they had seen or read about it and of those, 59 percent said they did not find the ad to be believable or credible.
The poll of 600 registered North Carolina voters was conducted May 20-22, and has an error margin of plus/minus 4 percent. Twenty-five percent of the respondents were contacted on cellphones.
Text of questions*:
“Now, please tell me if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of … “
TOTAL TOTAL VERY SMWT SMWT VERY HRD OF/ NEVER
FAV UNFAV FAV FAV UNFAV UNFAV NO OPIN HRD OF
Robin Hudson
5/14 18% 7% 8% 11% 4% 3% 27% 48%
Eric Levinson
5/14 11% 7% 2% 9% 3% 3% 26% 56%
“If the election for North Carolina Supreme Court were being held today for whom would you vote between: Eric Levinson and Robin Hudson?”
12% Total Levinson
20% Total Hudson
66% Lean/Undecided
8% Definitely Levinson
5% Probably Levinson
3% Lean Levinson
59% Undecided
4% Lean Hudson
9% Probably Hudson
10% Definitely Hudson
3% Refused
“Have you seen or read about a television ad accusing Supreme Court Justice Robin Hudson of siding with child molesters?”
44% Yes
54% No
2% Don’t Know/Refused
(For those who replied they had seen the ad:) “Do you find the ad to be credible or believable?”
12% Yes
59% No
29% Don’t Know/Refused
*Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100.
For more information: Supreme Court crosstabs, May 2014.
This poll of 600 registered voters in North Carolina was conducted May 20-22, 2014 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered general election voters in North Carolina. Twenty-five percent of the respondents were cell phone-only users. 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 7, 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.”
Civitas conducts the only regular live-caller polling of North Carolina voters. For more information on Civitas polling, see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.
The Civitas Institute is a policy institute based in Raleigh, N.C. More information is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099 or james.tynen@nccivitas.org.
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