Civitas Polling Suggests Public Will Support Senate Bill 594, Require Drug | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    RALEIGH     A 2011 Civitas Poll showed North Carolina voters will likely support proposed legislation that would require welfare applicants and recipients to pass drug tests to receive benefits.

    The poll of 600 registered voters had a margin of error of plus/minus 4 percent.

    Senate Bill 594, Require Drug Testing/Work First Benefits, was approved this week by the Senate Judiciary II Committee and was sent to the Senate Health Care Committee.

    The measure sparked debate on the panel, but a Civitas Poll from October 2011 indicated that the NC public strongly backed such a proposal. The poll of registered voters found that better than seven out of 10 (71 percent) supported drug testing for welfare recipients. This sentiment was widespread with more than half (55 percent) of the respondents strongly backing the idea. Less than one-fourth (23 percent) opposed the idea.

    “Our October 2011 poll showed voters in North Carolina overwhelmingly supported requiring people seeking public benefits get tested for drugs,” Civitas President Francis X. De Luca said. “It’s hard to imagine opinion could have shifted much since then.”

    Text of question:

    The speaker of the North Carolina House has proposed drug testing for recipients of public assistance. Do you agree or disagree with drug testing all those who receive public assistance in the state?

71% Total Agree
23% Total Disagree
55% Strongly Agree
16% Somewhat Agree
8% Somewhat Disagree
15% Strongly Disagree
4% Don’t Know/ No Opinion
2% Refused
    Click here for October 2011 crosstabs.

    About the Poll:

    The poll of 600 registered North Carolina voters in North Carolina was conducted October 17-18, 2011 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. 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.”

    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 or James.Tynen@nccivitas.org.

    CONTACT: Francis De Luca (919) 843-2099     Francis.DeLuca@nccivitas.org