As lawmakers chip away at open records laws, NC voters call for transparency

A poll commissioned by the conservative John Locke Foundation found that strong majorities of likely voters of all parties want transparency from state lawmakers.

North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican who represents Guilford and Rockingham counties, attends a legislative session on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.

Context

Before diving into the results, let’s begin with context.

From the outset, I must say that I have pretty high standards when it comes to reporting on public opinion polls. It’s easy for folks to read too much into a single poll, so when I do share information about a poll, I want to make sure the methodology is sound, comes from a reputable source and accurately represents voters’ views.

The survey I’m about to share comes from the conservative John Locke Foundation and asks fairly leading questions on the issue of transparency.

With that said, this is the first poll I’ve seen since North Carolina enacted a new budget that asked voters about the levels of transparency they’d like to see from state officials. Therefore, I think it’s worth sharing.

North Carolina’s budget greatly eroded open records laws by allowing lawmakers to respond or not respond to public records requests as they see fit, sell or delete any communications they want and have no obligation whatsoever to turn over internal discussions about redistricting.

The poll of 600 likely general election voters was conducted on Sunday and Monday and reported a margin of error of nearly 4 percentage points.

With all those caveats and context, here are three takeaways: