POLL RELEASES
December 12, 2000
Public Willing to Accept Supreme Court as Final Arbiter of Election Dispute
Does not see ongoing dispute as a crisis
by Jeffrey M. Jones
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- The United States Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday as it considered whether a recount of ballots in the Florida presidential election should go forward. The Court’s ruling is likely to determine who the next president will be, as a failure to count the votes would leave George W. Bush in the lead, and also leave Al Gore with very limited legal options in his continued pursuit of the presidency. While it is unprecedented for the Supreme Court to get involved in determining the winner of a presidential election, Americans appear to be willing to go along with the Court’s decision. A CNN/USA Today/,Gallup Poll, conducted December 10, shows that 73% of Americans say they will accept the Supreme Court’s decision on this matter as a "legitimate outcome no matter which candidate it favors," while only 19% say the Supreme Court’s decision will not be a legitimate outcome.
The public also believes the U.S. Supreme Court is the best institution to make the final decision on who will be the next president. When asked which of four institutions they most trust with this decision, a strong majority -- 61% -- chooses the U.S. Supreme Court. Only 17% say they trust the U.S. Congress most, 9% say the Florida State Supreme Court, and just 7% say the Florida legislature. The Supreme Court is the most trusted institution for every demographic and political subgroup, including both Bush and Gore supporters.
This support for a Supreme Court decision occurs despite the fact that a majority of the public, 51%, believes that the Supreme Court justices are being influenced by their personal political views when deciding the case. Gore supporters are much more likely to think this than are Bush supporters, by a margin of 65% to 36%. Despite this, 72% of the public overwhelmingly feels the Court’s decision will be fair, while only 17% think it will not be fair. Again, Bush supporters are more optimistic about the Court’s ability to hand down a fair ruling, as 87% of them expect it to be fair, as do 54% of Gore supporters.
Most Do Not See Continuing Election Controversy as a Crisis
On Friday, when the Florida Supreme Court ordered a recount of some 40,000 votes in Florida, the controversy looked no closer to a resolution than at any time since Election Day. On Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court surprised the nation by ordering a stop to the recount until its legality could be determined. Perhaps as a result of these rapidly occurring legal decisions, half of Americans on Sunday admitted they were confused by the recent court rulings regarding the presidential election in Florida, while 49% said they were not confused. Still, Americans are only slightly more likely today to think the uncertainty about the next president represents a "constitutional crisis" than they did earlier in the dispute. In the latest poll, 17% of Americans say the situation represents such a crisis, compared to 10% who indicated that in a late November poll and 15% who said the same immediately following the election. Today, 46% see it is a "major problem" compared to 50% in late November and 49% in mid-November.
There is a high probability that court rulings will ultimately decide the election outcome. Twenty-nine percent say it bothers them "a great deal" that courts will decide the final outcome, while 32% are bothered "a fair amount" and 37% are not bothered much, if at all. These numbers are essentially unchanged from a poll conducted November 19. While the overall numbers are not changed, there is a great deal of change beneath the surface. Interestingly, Bush supporters were much more bothered by a judicial resolution to the dispute in the earlier poll (47% bothered a great deal) than they are in the latest poll (32% bothered a great deal). Gore supporters show a reverse pattern, where more are bothered a great deal today (30%) than they were several weeks ago (19%).
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