Half S.C. voters want Sanford to quit

COLUMBIA, S.C., June 25 (UPI) -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a day after admitting an extramarital affair, was with his family at their beach house, aides said.

While Sanford joined his wife and children, Democrats in the state Legislature called for his resignation, The Washington Post reported. A new poll found half of the state's voters want him to quit.

InsiderAdvantage surveyed 926 registered voters Wednesday evening, Politico reported. Fifty percent said Sanford should go, 42 percent said he should stay and 8 percent had no opinion.

Voters were almost evenly split on whether Sanford should be impeached, with 45 percent in favor and 46 percent against. The poll had a 3.2 percent margin of error.

Sanford acknowledged Wednesday that he had been in Argentina for five days, visiting a woman with whom he had a yearlong affair.

In North Carolina, Republicans criticized Sanford's conduct but did not call on him to leave office, the Post said. Democrats did both.

"Every legislator that I've talked to except for those on the Republican side doesn't understand why he didn't resign yet," state Rep. J. Todd Rutherford said. "He needs to resign because of the dereliction of duty. It is a problem when the CEO of a 4.5-million-person organization goes AWOL and nobody can reach him. It was a gross dereliction of duty."