Elon Poll Finds North Carolinians Confused About Constitutional Amendments

A new Elon University poll takes a closer look at what North Carolinians know about six constitutional amendments on the November ballot. Researchers found that only 56 percent of North Carolina voters were aware of all the amendments they could see this fall.

They then drilled down into people's knowledge of two of the measures: voter ID and the income tax cap.

Participants were shown the ballot question, as well as the full amendment language.

“When people read the ballot description for voter ID, 63 percent were for the proposed amendment, 20 percent against and 17 percent not sure,” says Jason Husser, Elon University Poll director. “There was a slight decline in support of a voter ID after reading the full description, but it remained relatively popular.”

Husser says a state issued ID or driver's license was the most popular acceptable form of identification followed by a passport.

He says when asked about the income tax cap amendment, many respondents weren't sure what it meant, even after reading the longer version. 

“Even under that condition, almost half of voters still didn't fully understand what affect this amendment would have on their income taxes,” says Husser. “Fifty-six percent of people got it right and said the amendment would have no immediate effect on their taxes. However, 44 percent then said they would either raise it, lower it, or they didn't know what would happen. So that to me suggests the language of the tax cap amendment is not clear to at least what would work out to be millions of voters in the state.” 

More than 1,500 registered voters across the state provided information for the online survey. It was conducted Sept. 1-3, 2018.

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