Poll: Voters split on filling Strom vacancy

A new poll from Public Policy Polling shows Chapel Hil voters evenly divided on whether one of the losing candidates in Tuesday's election should be appointed to fill Bill Strom's seat: 38 percent in favor, 38 percent opposed, and 24 percent unsure.
 
"Trumping that finding with the loss of Jim Merritt though is probably the question we asked about whether Chapel Hillians thought it was important to have an African American on the Town Council," says PPP's Tom Jensen.

Fifty-seven percent of voters said yes to that with just 28 percent dissenting. "I imagine given the strong support from the community that's the direction the Council will now go in with the appointment,' Jensen says.
 
Two other key findings from the poll, neither of which Jensen says is particularly surprising given the returns.  51 percent of Chapel Hill voters support publicly financed elections with only 31 percent opposed. 

"Given Mark Kleinschmidt's win and Penny Rich's first place finish it's clear there was no backlash from that and it's even possible the opposite was true," he says.