HIGH POINT, N.C., Aug. 27, 2012 – A new High Point University Poll of registered voters in North Carolina shows President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney tied with 43 percent of survey participants choosing Obama and 43 percent choosing Romney as the candidate they would vote for if the election were held today.
The new survey, fielded through SurveyUSA the week before the Republican National Convention is held in Tampa, Fla., also shows almost four out of five registered voters in North Carolina are following news about the elections more closely than they did in 2010.
“This has been a closely watched state from early on in the 2012 election cycle,” says Martin Kifer, director of the HPU Poll and assistant professor of political science at High Point University. “The new poll shows that North Carolina is still a toss-up state in the presidential election.”
Presidential candidate preference:
“If the election for President of the United States were held today, would you be voting for (choices rotated) Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, or someone else?”
Mitt Romney – 43 percent
Barack Obama – 43 percent
Someone else – 6 percent
Undecided – 8 percent
(n = 540, Margin of sampling error +/- 4.3 percent)
Following the election:
“Would you say you have been following news about the elections more closely or less closely than you did in 2010?”
More closely – 79 percent
Less closely – 14 percent
Not sure – 7 percent
(n = 540, Margin of sampling error +/- 4.3 percent)
For the survey, SurveyUSA interviewed 600 state of North Carolina adults Aug. 18 – Aug. 23. Of the adults, 540 were registered to vote. This research was conducted using blended sample, mixed mode. Respondents reachable on a home telephone (75 percent of adults, 76 percent of registered voters) were interviewed on their home telephone in the recorded voice of a professional announcer. Respondents not reachable on a home telephone (25 percent of adults, 24 percent of registered voters), were shown a questionnaire on their smartphone, laptop, tablet, or other electronic device. In this research, consistent with findings in other states, cellphone respondents are more Democratic than are landline respondents. Romney leads by 3 points among landline respondents. Obama leads by 12 points among cellphone respondents. When the two groups are proportionally blended, the contest is, as reported here, tied. Additional methodological explanation is available from SurveyUSA: http://www.surveyusa.com/client/methodology6.aspx
Additional details including crosstabs of these questions are available at the High Point University Survey Research Center website: http://src.highpoint.edu/
You can follow the HPU Poll on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SurveyResearchCenter and Twitter at http://twitter.com/HPUSurveyCenter.
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Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]