Voters Disapprove of General Assembly Proposed Ban

RALEIGH, N.C. – With the NC Senate giving final approval to a bill that would ban single-use plastic bags at certain areas of North Carolina’s coastline, a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute shows that voters strongly disapprove of such a ban.

According to the live-caller poll of 600 voters, 58 percent disagreed with the General Assembly’s proposal to ban retail and grocery stores from providing plastic bags to shoppers.  Thirty-one percent of voters said they supported the ban; 11 percent said they were not sure.

“North Carolinians recognize this proposal would reduce choices and raise costs for consumers,” said Civitas Institute Executive Director Francis De Luca. “Voters do not want the choice of ‘paper or plastic’ made for them by the government.”

The proposed ban is least popular in the 252 area code – eastern North Carolina – which encompasses the barrier islands, where only 28 percent of voters said they supported the ban and 62 percent said they were opposed to it.

“It seems even the voters of the affected region, and supposedly helped by this bill, don’t want it passed,” added De Luca. “It makes one wonder just why this bill has passed the General Assembly.”

Full text of questions:

Would you support or oppose a law banning retail and grocery stores from providing plastic bags to shoppers?

Support – 31%
Oppose – 58%
Not Sure – 11%

The study of 600 registered voters was conducted June 15-18, 2009 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.