Poll Reflects Decade Of NC Voters' Views | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Jim Tynen, was originally published in the Issues, Poll Results, Polling section(s) of Civitas's online edition.


    The most recent Civitas Poll of North Carolina voters compared their current views with the positions of voters in May 2005, when Civitas took its first poll.

    Despite demographic and political shifts, many findings were similar over the decade. For example, voters continue to favor cutting spending rather than raising taxes to control state spending.

    Asked the reason for tight NC budgets in 2015, an overwhelming majority of voters, 78 percent, said the cause was government spending that is too high. When asked how for the best way to cut budgets, 57 percent said the state should cut government spending or stop spending on new programs. Only 8 percent favored raising taxes.

    Asked the equivalent questions in 2005, 84 percent said spending was too high, and 67 percent said the solution was to cut spending or stop spending on new programs. Only 5 percent said raising taxes was the answer.

    The poll also showed that voters do not support increased funding for the University of North Carolina system. When asked about the amount of state appropriations used to support the UNC system, 47 percent of survey respondents said the taxpayer share of undergraduate education is "too high." Just 11 percent of voters said it was "too low," while 31 percent said it was "about right."

    In the 2005 poll, 40 percent of voters thought the taxpayer share of UNC's expenses was too high.

    The 2015 poll also revealed what today's voters think of how well President Obama, Gov. Pat McCrory and Sen. Richard Burr are doing their jobs.

    Asked if they approved of the job Obama is doing, 46 percent approved, 52 percent disapproved. McCrory's rating was 53 percent approved, 37 percent disapprove. Burr's rating was 41/31, with 28 percent saying they didn't know.

    To see poll results in graph form, click here. To see poll results in HTML form, click here.

    The 2015 poll surveyed 600 registered North Carolina voters, 30 percent of whom were reached on cell phones. The survey was taken May 5-7, and had a margin of error of plus/minus 4 percent.

    The May 2005 poll was taken by Tel Opinion Research. In it 1,000 voters were surveyed, and it had a margin of error of plus/minus 3.1 percent.

    Crosstabs for the 2015 poll are here and here.

    About the 2005 poll: The poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted May 3-9, 2005 by Tel Opinion Research of Buffalo, New York. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina who had voted in the 2002 and 2004 general elections. The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 1,000 interviews (registered voters) will be within plus/minus 3.2 percent of the "true values."

    About the 2015 poll: This poll of 600 registered voters in North Carolina was conducted May 5-7, 2015 by National Research, Inc., of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered general election voters in North Carolina. Thirty 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 (2012, 2014) or be newly registered to vote since November 1, 2014. 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."