March 16, 2004
ATHENS, GA - In addition to budget issues and the HOPE scholarship funding, three concerns are likely to loom large in the current legislative session: (1) redistricting, (2) same-sex marriage, and (3) the child endangerment act. Of these three issues, the public is most engaged in the debate over same-sex marriage. When the public was asked to name the most important issue for the legislature to address this session, 9 percent cited same-sex marriage; this is more than the percent citing state budget issues (7 percent). Only 2 percent of respondents cited child endangerment, and less than 1 percent cited redistricting. In comparison, education was cited by 24 percent of respondents, jobs and the economy by 21 percent, and the HOPE scholarship by only 3 percent.
While 49 percent of Georgians say they are following news about same-sex marriage very closely, only 11 percent say they are following news about redistricting very closely. When asked which party the current districting maps favor, only 31 percent cited the Democratic party; 20 percent believe current maps favor the Republicans, 19 percent believe current maps favor neither party, and 30 percent say that they don't know. Clearly, news about the biases in the district maps used in 2002 has not entered public consciousness.
Other Peach State Poll results:
* Sixty-two percent of Georgians support the Child Endangerment Act either strongly (44 percent) or mildly (18 percent); those who support the bill are also more inclined to trust prosecutors with the decisions as to who will be prosecuted under the law.
* Those who report following the issue of same-sex marriage very closely are also more likely to express strong support for the current ban and for amending the constitution to include that ban than are those who are not closely following the issue.
* Although the public is not following the process carefully, Georgians did not respond positively to the notion that the majority party-having been selected by the public to lead-should be allowed to create districts that suit its interests. Eighty-one percent of Georgians prefer that redistricting is done in a nonpartisan way.
These data were taken from a Peach State Poll survey conducted between February 27 and March 8, 2004. The poll included 800 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is +/-3.5 percent.
