By InsiderAdvantage Staff –
Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5
OpinionSavvy Poll Conducted for FOX 5 Atlanta, Morris News, and InsiderAdvantage’s Southern Political Report: South Carolina Voters Favor Removal of Confederate Battle Flag by Slight Majority
A survey of 752 registered voters in South Carolina conducted Monday evening shows 50% of respondents favor the call to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol while 46% oppose doing so. Only 4% said they were undecided or had no opinion on the matter. Tabs at the bottom of the page.
Analysis from FOX 5 Political Analyst and Chairman of InsiderAdvantage/Southern Political Report Matt Towery:
“This is a highly polarizing issue in South Carolina. Democrats favor removal by 84%, but only 33% of Republicans favor the move. Ironically, older voters favor removal of the flag from the capitol grounds, while younger voters tend to resist the notion. Whites oppose the change by a 53%-41% margin (the rest undecided). And women support removal by 55% with support from men only at 44%.”
Towery continues, “This remains a more polarizing issue that one might expect and it will test Republican Governor Nikki Haley’s ability to go against the fairly strong opposition to the move among GOP voters in her state. Moreover, one has to wonder how Republican legislators will react once this and other surveys suggest a fairly strong degree of opposition from GOP voters. Past experience in other Southern states suggests that moves to eliminate the Confederate battle flag ultimately prevail, but require expending a great deal of political power, and at substantial political risk, to get done.”
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%
See full tabs of the poll here: OS Poll for SC 6.23
A second survey released Tuesday asked registered Georgia voters the following question: “The NAACP has recently called to remove all confederate emblems from courthouse squares in Georgia. What is your opinion of this call?
Fifty-one percent of the voters surveyed approved the removal, 43% disapproved and 6% were undecided.
The combined phone and online survey was conducted Monday evening and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.
FOX 5 Political Analyst and Insider Advantage Chairman Matt Towery said, “Republicans disapproved by 57%, with much of that coming from men. Women were far more supportive of a ban (59%) as were Democrats (76%). In reality this will likely be an issue that the few counties involved in such displays will have to deal with individually, I don’t see this as a major legislative matter since Georgia removed the confederate battle flag from its state flag many years ago.”