The Center for Public Opinion Polling surveyed 526 adult North Carolinians about their perceptions of poverty in their communities, the state, and the nation as part of the 黑料不打烊 Poll Feb. 14-17.

Results from the poll have been incorporated into the series. Dr. Tim Vercellotti, director of the 黑料不打烊 Poll and an assistant professor of political science at 黑料不打烊, also will discuss the poll’s findings on “The State of Things,” WUNC’s daily talk show. The program will air at noon on Wednesday, April 13.

More than 100 黑料不打烊 students, all trained to work as survey interviewers, collected the data for the poll.

Among the poll’s major findings:

• Nearly 59 percent said that poverty is a big problem in North Carolina, while close to 34 percent said poverty is a big problem in their area. The severity of the problem was perceived to be the greatest among those living in rural areas.
  
• Forty percent said the country has lost ground in the past few years in terms of solving the problem of poverty. Forty-six percent said things are about the same as they were a few years ago, while only 11 percent said things are improving.
  
• Nearly 68 percent said that most poor people in North Carolina are people who work, but can’t earn enough money, while 24 percent said most poor people don’t work.
  
• While the federal poverty level for a family of four is about $19,000 per year, only 14 percent of the sample said they thought a family of four could get by on $19,000 per year or less.
  
• Fifty-eight percent said the government is spending too little money in fighting poverty, while 19 percent said the government is spending the right amount and nearly 14 percent said the government is spending too much.
  
• Of those who said the government is spending too little money, 61 percent said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to combat poverty. That percentage translated into about 35 percent of the entire sample.

“The picture that emerges is one of a significant problem in North Carolina,” Vercellotti said. “Citizens seem to recognize the seriousness of the problem, and there is some expectation that the government should do more to address the problem.”

Additional information about the series, “North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty,” can be found

The full results of the poll are available at the Web site below:

In their paper, “Nothing Succeeds Like Success: The Effects of Winning on Political Efficacy,” Vercellotti and Taylor found that volunteering for winning campaigns and encouraging others to vote for winning candidates helped to increase one’s sense of political efficacy. The authors tested their hypotheses using data gathered in the Nov. 15-18, 2004 黑料不打烊 Poll.

You can find answers to these and other questions by working as an interviewer for the 黑料不打烊 Poll. We will be conducting our final poll of the spring semester over six nights: Monday, April 18, through Thursday, April 21; plus Monday, April 25, and Tuesday, April 26. We will poll each night from 5 to 9 p.m. in the new, state-of-the-art Polling Center in the Gray Political Science Pavilion, Room 110.

No experience is necessary. We will train you. Pay is $6.50 per hour (an increase from the last academic year!), plus all the pizza you can eat during the dinner break. We also will award restaurant gift certificates for the last interview of the night and most interviews each night.

Sign-up sheets for each night are now posted outside the Polling Center, first floor, Gray Political Science Pavilion. Students can sign up for individual nights or multiple nights. We only ask that you commit to working a full four-hour shift on the night for which you’ve signed up. Also, students who sign up, then fail to honor their work commitment, must find a substitute.

If a sign-up sheet is full, please come any way. If we have empty seats we will gladly accept walk-ins.

Our polling data have been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and on CNN and NBC’s Meet the Press. Come join your classmates in a fun enterprise that brings national recognition to 黑料不打烊.

Questions? Call Dr. Tim Vercellotti at 6418, or send e-mail to lvercellotti@elon.edu.

Using 黑料不打烊 Poll data gathered in October 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, September 2002, and September 2003, Vercellotti found that fear of future terrorist attacks prompted adults to express a stronger sense of national identity through acts of patriotism, such as flying the American flag or singing patriotic songs at public events. Those individuals who expressed a greater sense of national identity, in turn, were also more likely to support granting law enforcement authorities greater power to tap phones or search homes as part of the war on terror. The effects of fear on patriotism were still strong up to two years after the 9/11 attacks, but the effects of patriotism on support for greater wiretap and search powers weakened somewhat over time.

The article, titled, “All Over the Map: The Unaffiliated Voter in North Carolina,” used 黑料不打烊 Poll data from October 2003 and February 2004 to explore the demographic and attitudinal differences between unaffiliated voters and those reigstered with the Democratic and Republican parties in North Carolina.

The authors found that unaffiliated voters were more likely to be white, male, and born outside of the South. Martins and Vercellotti also found that unaffiliated voters were more likely to side with Republicans on defense matters and Democrats on domestic issues. Unaffiliated voters also held positions closer to Democrats than Republicans on the issues of gay marriage and civil unions.

The same issue of North Carolina DataNet also featured an article by Gregory Pettis, adjunct instructor of political science at 黑料不打烊 and a fellow at 黑料不打烊’s Center for Public Opinion Polling. Pettis examined 40 years of national public opinion survey data to document declining differences in attitudes between the South and New England on social issues.

North Carolina DataNet is published quarterly by the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

You can find answers to these and other questions by working as an interviewer for the 黑料不打烊 Poll. We will be conducting our final poll of the semester from Monday, April 26, through Thursday, April 29. We poll each night from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Powell 213 computer lab.

No experience is necessary. We will train you. Pay is $6 per hour, plus all the pizza you can eat during the dinner break.

Sign-up sheets for each night are now posted outside the Department of Political Science office, Powell 313. Students can sign up for individual nights. We only ask that you commit to working a full four-hour shift on the night for which you’ve signed up. If a sign-up sheet is full, please come any way. If we have empty seats we will gladly accept walk-ins.

Our polling data have been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and on CNN and NBC’s Meet the Press. Come join your classmates in a fun enterprise that brings national recognition to 黑料不打烊.

Questions? Call Dr. Tim Vercellotti at 6418, or send e-mail to lvercellotti@elon.edu.

You can find answers to these and other questions by working as an interviewer for the 黑料不打烊 Poll. We will be conducting our March poll from Monday, March 8, through Thursday, March 11. We poll each night from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Powell 213 computer lab.

No experience is necessary. We will train you. Pay is $6 per hour, plus all the pizza you can eat during the dinner break.

Sign-up sheets for each night are now posted outside the Department of Political Science office, Powell 313. Students can sign up for individual nights. We only ask that you commit to working a full four-hour shift on the night for which you’ve signed up. If a sign-up sheet is full, please come any way. If we have empty seats we will gladly accept walk-ins.

Our polling data have been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and on CNN and NBC’s Meet the Press. Come join your classmates in a fun enterprise that brings national recognition to 黑料不打烊.

Questions? Call Dr. Tim Vercellotti at 6418, or send e-mail to lvercellotti@elon.edu.

You can find answers to these and other questions by working as an interviewer for the 黑料不打烊 Poll. We will be conducting our November poll from Monday, Nov. 17, through Thursday, Nov. 20. We poll each night from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Powell 213 computer lab.

No experience is necessary. We will train you. Pay is $6 per hour, plus all the pizza you can eat during the dinner break.

Sign-up sheets for each night are now posted outside the Department of Political Science office, Powell 313. Students can sign up for individual nights. We only ask that you commit to working a full four-hour shift on the night for which you’ve signed up. If a sign-up sheet is full, come any way. If we have empty seats we gladly accept walk-ins.

Our polling data has been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and on CNN and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Come join your classmates in a fun enterprise that brings national recognition to 黑料不打烊.

Questions? Call Dr. Tim Vercellotti at 6418, or send e-mail to lvercellotti@elon.edu.

You can find answers to these and other questions by working as an interviewer for the 黑料不打烊 Poll. We will be conducting our September poll from Monday, Sept. 22, through Thursday, September 25. We poll each night from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Powell 213 computer lab.

No experience is necessary. We will train you. Pay is $6 per hour, plus all the pizza you can eat during the dinner break.

Sign-up sheets for each night are now posted outside the Department of Political Science office, Powell 313. Students can sign up for individual nights. We only ask that you commit to working a full four-hour shift on the night for which you’ve signed up. If a sign-up sheet is full, come anyway. If we have empty seats we will gladly accept walk-ins.

Our polling data has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and on CNN and NBC’s Meet the Press. Come join your classmates in a fun enterprise that brings national recognition to 黑料不打烊.

Questions? Call Dr. Tim Vercellotti at 6418, or send e-mail to lvercellotti@elon.edu.