A majority (53%) say that Al Gore should concede defeat now, the poll says. And just 52 percent of those polled continue to believe it is more important to remove all reasonable doubt that the vote count in Florida has been fair and accurate than to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. In the NEWSWEEK Poll of Nov. 16 and Nov. 17, 61 percent said it was more important to remove all doubt. A week earlier, 72 percent said eliminating all doubt should be the priority.
The dispute over the Florida vote is either already a crisis for the country (25%) or becoming one (30%), the majority of Americans believe. But 64 percent do not think the country will be seriously hurt by a delay in the transition to the next administration. In fact, 60 percent approve of the Clinton administration’s decision to hold off on giving the George W. Bush team access to federal funds and office space to plan the transition.
The majority of people also say they are either very confident (26%) or somewhat confident (36%) that after all the legal issues are resolved the presidential candidate who actually received the most votes in Florida will be awarded the state’s overall electoral votes (19% say they are not too confident; 14% say they are not confident at all). Sixty percent also believe that Bush’s ability to be an effective leader would not be hurt if he won because hand counts favoring Gore were excluded; only 49 percent say Gore would not be seriously hurt as a leader if he ends up winning only after lengthy legal battles over the hand counts, and about as many (47%) believe he would be.
Fifty-five percent of adults surveyed disapprove Gore’s handling of the situation in Florida, while 53 percent approve of Bush’s handling of it.
There is substantial support for some of Gore’s legal arguments. A 54 percent majority in the NEWSWEEK Poll says the U.S. Supreme Court should rule that the Florida Supreme Court acted properly in extending the deadline for hand recounts (38% said it did not). But there is an almost even split among adults on whether the highest court in the nation should set its own guidelines for how and when ballots should be recounted (48% say it should; 45 say it should not).
While far more people (51%) believe Bush received more votes in Florida than Gore (32%), there is still a virtual tie over who Americans would like to see become the next president, with 44 percent preferring Bush and 42 percent choosing Gore. But the majority (56%) say that if Gore’s legal challenges fail he should run for president again in 2004 (37% say he should not).
The NEWSWEEK Poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. The firm interviewed 1,005 adults, by telephone, aged 18 and older from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
