March 21, 2012

To: Interested Parties Fr: John Anzalone / Zac McCrary Re: Statewide Polling on the New Alabama Immigration Law

A majority of Alabamians support the new immigration law, but only 19% believe the law needs no changes. A 19-point majority of Alabamians favor the new immigration law (54% Favor / 35% Oppose). This is a respectable majority, but it has likely narrowed over the past several months due to the extensive news media scrutiny the law has received. However, more than half of voters statewide (55%) indicate the law needs changes. Only 19% of Alabama voters believe the law needs no changes, while 13% say the law should be repealed entirely. Regardless of political affiliation, clear majorities want changes made to the new immigration law. A majority of GOP primary voters (53%) believe the law needs changes. Even among Tea Party supporters, more prefer changing the law (49%) to leaving it as is (40%). Strong majorities of both Democrats (58%) and African Americans (64%) believe the law should be changed, while one-in-four Democrats (25%) and 16% of African Americans say the law is not working and should be entirely repealed. Among electorally-critical Independent voters, 60% prefer changes, with roughly as many Independents preferring repeal (13%) as prefer to leave the law as is (15%).

Anzalone Liszt Research conducted N=500 live telephone interviews with likely 2012 Alabama general election voters between February 1-6, 2012. Respondents were selected at random, with interviews apportioned geographically based on expected voter turnout. Expected margin of sampling error is 4.4% with a 95% confidence level.