Polls: Corbett Not Popular, But Voter ID Is

Tom Corbett’s numbers are still low according to two polls. In Quinnipiac, 47 percent disapprove his job as Governor compared to 36 percent who approve. In Franklin and Marshall, 64 percent disapprove his job performance versus 30 percent who approve.

Q-pac surveyed likely voters; F&M polled registered voters. Corbett’s net-negative job approval is 4 points worse than in Q-Pac’s August 1 poll, but 4 points better than F&M’s poll from August 16.

Voters have an unfavorable view of Corbett himself by a margin of 42 percent to 30 percent, according to F&M.

The most interesting numbers concerned Corbett’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky case while he was Attorney General. F&M showed that 95 percent of registered voters knew about the case. Of those, just 17 percent believe Corbett did a good or excellent job. 27 percent said he did only a fair job, while 39 percent said he did a poor job.

It’s an issue that could play even before Corbett’s 2014 re-election bid. 49 percent of those who knew about Sandusky said the next Attorney General should review the way Corbett’s office handled the case.

Both 2012 candidates for Attorney General have pledged action. Republican Dave Freed said he would review the case, while Democrat Kathleen Kane pledged to launch a formal investigation into the matter.

Voter ID

Meanwhile, as the state’s new Voter ID law works its way through the courts, the requirement remains popular.

“While judges and politicians debate Pennsylvania’s voter ID measure, voters are solidly in support of the measure, 62 – 35 percent,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “And 99 percent of voters say they believe they have the necessary documents to cast a ballot.”

F&M found similar support: 59 percent of respondents said they favor the law, while 39 percent said they opposed it.

However, critics who oppose the Voter ID requirement do room to win the public opinion battle. Of those who said initially that they favor the law, 21 percent changed their minds when asked, “Would you still favor this law if you knew that many eligible voters will be prevented from voting because they will not have a proper ID?”

That’s the crux of legal and political arguments against the law.

51 percent of respondents oppose the law when that 21 percent are figured in, while 47 percent remain opposed.

Methodology

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,180 likely Pa. voters via land lines and cell phones from Sept. 18 to 24. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percent. The poll was produced in conjunction with CBS and the New York Times.

Franklin and Marshall polled 632 Pennsylvania voters, including 392 likely voters, from September 18 to 23. The margin of error for registred voters is plus or minus 3.9 percent; the margin of error for likely voters is plus or minus 4.9 percent. The poll sample includes 50 percent Democrats, 37 percent Republicans and 11 percent independents. The poll was produced in conjunction with the Philadelphia Daily News, WGAL-TV (South Central PA), Pittsburgh Tribune Review, WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh), WPVI-TV6/ABC (Philadelphia), Times-Shamrock Newspapers, Harrisburg Patriot-News, and Lancaster Newspapers.

8 Responses

  1. electedface.com has been calling for this investigation from the beginning! Their petition has called for this exact question!

    As Attorney General, Tom Corbett received over $647,000 in campaign contributions from members of the Second Mile Foundation, while only assigning one investigator to the case.

    Meanwhile, at the same time, he assigned 14 investigators to Bill Deweese, who spent more than 5 years trying to get him.

    It is difficult to believe these campaign contributions did not improperly influence his decision to not file charges against Jerry Sandusky.

    The state police trooper who initially handled the Clinton County case against Jerry Sandusky believed there was enough evidence from a teenage boy — now known as Victim One– to charge Sandusky with indecent assault.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji7UQhr3z3M

  2. If you are against voter id because there is no proven fraud, does that mean we have to wait until an election is decided illegally, as has happened in Minnesota, Indiana, etc. etc. until it is made law? It would seem an ounce of prevention…

  3. There are simply no cases of in person voting fraud. The fraud occurs with absentee ballots. Anyone with a brain knows that.

  4. Someone should check absentee ballots against Florida, like that one group did. Lots of people live both places.
    I don’t care who the fraud favors. No fraud!

  5. The Republicans know that the only real type of voter fraud is absentee ballots, and they left out fixing that because they engage in it.

  6. The reason the law is popular is because everyone knows that fraud takes place, they just can’t prove it.

    Hence why nobody with any brains opposes Voter ID.

  7. The MAIN reason the law is “popular” is that at least 80% already have driver’s license and don’t “get” that many other people do not.

    You’ve got idiots arguing that you need license to buy beer. (When was the last time anyone over 40 had to show ID to by beer?)

    Student ID’s (without expiration date) are accepted as ID, and the new expiration date requirement was added specifically because the IDs don’t already come that way.

    I bet most respondents would be surprised that a teacher’s government issued employee photo ID (which gets them into a school filled with precious children) is not good enough for voting.

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