North Carolina is in the midst of a heated election cycle, and voters in the state are keenly aware of the increasingly-intertwined roles of super PACs and campaign finance.
Researchers from UNC and High Point University found that North Carolina voters understand this relationship more than the average American voter – while about 40 percent of Americans can define a Super PAC, about 51 percent of North Carolina voters can, according to the poll.
And awareness is even higher at UNC, said Daniel Riffe, a UNC journalism professor, and one of the three researchers responsible for designing and administering the survey.
“There is probably even greater awareness in the UNC community, because people are more savvy about politics, and pay more attention to it,” he said.
North Carolina's U.S. Senate race, where eight Republican candidates battle to unseat Sen. Kay Hagan, has seen an influx of outside money. The primary is on May 6.
The survey results, compiled from about 600 responses, asked participants to denote their level of familiarity with Super PACs and whether they agreed with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow super PACs to accept unlimited political donations.