Poll: Swing Voters Find Obama Would Pick Better Judges than Romney

According to a new poll, almost two out of three likely voters say Supreme Court appointments will be an important factor when deciding whether to vote for President Barack Obama or Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

And it seems, according to the poll, released today, that voter consideration of these issues is more likely to aid Obama than Romney.

The Supreme Court's Impact on the 2012 Presidential Election, conducted on behalf of civil rights groups by Hart Research Associates, found that more than half of the 1,007 people surveyed online in late August, 54 percent, believe that the current Court majority "tends to side with corporations" as opposed to individuals. Thirty-six percent said the Court had struck a balance, and just 10 percent believe the Court favors individuals.

Between the two candidates, 46 percent swing voters polled said they have "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of confidence that Obama would nominate good federal judges and Supreme Court justices if he wins. Only 35 percent of those swing voters said the same about Romney.

The poll, sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, and People for the American Way, is available here. 

Guy Molyneux, a partner with Hart Research, said during a conference call with reporters that, "More voters worry Romney would make appointments that have negative traits when compared to Barack Obama."

Those traits have to do with things like supporting justices who would turn back the clock on civil rights and women's rights, and who are "out of touch with modern society," the poll found.

Romney's support of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling that allowed for the creation of "Super PACs" that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of candidates, as well as his anti-abortion stance, are vulnerabilities among swing voters. These two issues caused 63 percent and 62 percent of swing voters, respectively, to say they had less confidence that Romney would appoint "the right kind of people" to the Supreme Court.

At the end of the survey, respondents were asked the same question about their confidence in the candidates to nominate good federal judges and justices. There was a big increase from the beginning of the survey, where 5 percent more voters said they thought Obama would make good selections compared with Romney, to the end of the survey, where 14 percent more voters thought Obama would make the better picks.

In a polarized political environment, which is the case in this election, "to go from a five-point to fourteen-point advantage is really quite substantial," said Molyneux.

Comments

[R u out of your mind?]

I'd like to know how many of these people could actually name a current Supreme Court Judge.

[Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr.]

Romney won the only two legitimate questions in the entire survey: he is more likely to nominate a Supreme Court Justice who will uphold the “true meaning” of the Constitution and more people are concerned that Obama will appoint the kind of Justice who won’t uphold the “true meaning” of the Constitution. Polling firms do what they are paid to do, but it would be hard to come up with a more distorted poll about the courts than this one. It is a great example of how leftist groups like those sponsoring this poll think about the role of judges -- they exist to take sides and advance political interests.

[tm]

Must be a lot of socialist and Useful idiots in this poll.

[D]

The answer to this hypothetical question is inconclusive at best. I turned around & polled our work force & I got nine votes for Romney to pick the best of Supreme court nominees. Eight Republicans will vote for Romney & of the two Democrats one will vote for Obama & the other will vote for Romney. Four verified they swing accordingly to candidates. It would be hard to determine an unbiased answer to this question due the fact that most voters will declare their candidate as their preference. The four swing voters in this case did just that.
Swing voters do not always accurately reply to a political question when polled on the phone. This swing voter poll is probably not as accurate as it was intended to be.

[Howard Klein]

The drastic change in results from the beginning of the survey to the end of the survey is strong evidence that it was a "push poll," in which the questions were skewed to produce the outcome favored by the polling firm and/or their client(s). I'm sure a set of questions could be asked that would produce the opposite result.

[Kent Scheidegger]

Wow. If you were teaching a class on polling and wanted to present an example of a deliberately skewed poll, you would be hard pressed to find a better (i.e., worse) example.

More people think Romney nominees would tend to favor corporations, the poll says. How many people think Obama nominees would tend to favor criminals? They didn't ask that question, because they don't want the answer.

The "big increase" between the beginning and end of the poll is produced by feeding the respondent a shovel of skewed information.

This post is disappointing in that it reports this poll at face value without questioning who did it, how, or why. Can you do a little better next time, folks? You are journalists and not members of the Obama campaign team, right?

[Brian Maple]

#OBAMA 2012 EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL PEOPLE!!!