A new Elon University Poll says North Carolina voters are split between the two candidates for the White House.
The poll shows 46% of the state’s registered voters supported Republican Donald Trump and 46% backed Democrat Kamala Harris -- with about 9% still undecided a week before Election Day.
Voters surveyed heavily favored Democrat Josh Stein in the race for North Carolina governor. The current attorney general now has a 21-point advantage over Republican Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor, whose campaign has been derailed after CNN reported last month that he allegedly made offensive posts on the forum of a pornographic web site a decade ago. That was just the latest scandal for a candidate who was already lagging.
Robinson said he didn’t make the posts, and has sued CNN.
When Elon last surveyed the race in September, before the CNN report, Stein was ahead by 14.
After controversy surrounding federal and state response to the devastation left by Helene in the North Carolina mountains last month, 20% of voters said they were more likely to vote because of the storm’s devastation and only 2% said they are less likely to cast a ballot.
There were also sharp partisan differences in how voters view the response to the storm; 68% of Democrats said federal and state agencies are doing a “very good” or “good” job, while only 24% of Republicans said they felt that way.
Professor Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll, said North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes are likely to be decided by how the 4% of undecided voters cast their ballots.
With more than 2.8 million ballots cast, more than a third of North Carolinians have already voted, and more than half of them were women.
