Poll: Americans say give one party power

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NEW YORK, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A slim majority of Americans would prefer one party in control of Congress and the White House after the November elections, a poll released Tuesday indicates.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll found 52 percent of voters surveyed would just as soon see one-party rule in Washington. Thirty-nine percent said they prefer power distributed. The pollsters said it is the first time a majority of voters supported single-party power going back to the mid-1980s.

Independent voter Mark Harrod, 39, of Jacksonville, Fla., said the best scenario would be for members of the two parties to work together to solve problems like in the "Clinton days or the Reagan days." But since gridlock rules, he thinks Democrats should get control.

"Maybe they'd get more done. Then there'd be no more excuses," Harrod said. "You can't say, 'Oh, they didn't let us do this' or 'they didn't let us do that.'"

Rob Adrian of Plainfield, Ill., who supports Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said he usually prefers a divided Congress and White House but now wants Republicans to have at least two years to run the show.

"We are so close to going over the cliff," he said. "I would really like to see the House, the Senate and the White House do away with what I believe are extremely bad decisions."

The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters. The results have a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.