The voters are not happy

North Carolina voters remain in a sour mood as they head into the new year, worried about a troubled economy, according to a new survey.

Only a third of the voters think the state is heading in the right direction, while 57 percent think it is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new survey conducted for The Civitas Institute, a Raleigh-based think tank with Republican leanings. Ten percent were not sure of the state's direction.

The largest group of voters (36 percent) thought the economy was the biggest issue facing the state. Other issues on people's minds were education (17 percent), the state budget and government spending (16 percent) illegal immigration (9 percent) health care (8 percent) taxes (4 percent) crime and drugs(4 percent), government corruption (4 percent) and the environment (4 percent.

The survey found that voters are divided on the job that president Barack Obama is doing with 46 approving of his job performance and 52 percent disapproving.

A strong majority(65 percent) said they favored a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Seventy-seven percent said they would back cutting taxes even if it required additional cuts in government spending if it encouraged job creation.

The survey of 600 voters was conducted Dec. 15-16 by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria Va. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.