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Poll: 51 Percent of Voters Think Obama Should Choose Next SCOTUS Nominee
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 01:20 PM
By: Cathy Burke
A slight majority of voters think President Barack Obama should make the choice of a Supreme Court nominee to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia and that the GOP-led Senate should consider it, a new poll shows.
The Rasmussen Reports survey released Wednesday finds 43 percent of likely voters think Obama should leave the decision about a SCOTUS replacement to his successor, but that 51 percent disagree, believing the decision is this president's to make.
When asked about how the Senate should respond to an Obama nominee, 53 percent believe the upper chamber lawmakers shouldn't reject or refuse to consider the appointment.
But 35 percent believe lawmakers should block the nominee to give the next president the choice, the survey finds.
Still, the poll also finds that 69 percent of voters think it's unlikely the Senate will approve an Obama nominee to replace the revered conservative jurist; just 27 percent think it's even somewhat likely.
In other findings, the survey shows:
69 percent of Republicans think the president should hand the nomination decision off to the next president; 76 percent of Democrats disagree.
58 percent of self-described politically conservative voters think the Senate should block any nomination Obama makes to replace Scalia; 63 percent of moderates and 83 of liberal voters disagree.
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.