WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama leads presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney 50-43 among registered voters nationwide, a poll released Thursday found.
The national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act "appears to have had little effect on the 2012 race" but has affected voters' views of the court -- with 51 percent saying they have a favorable opinion of the court and 37 percent expressing an unfavorable opinion. In April, 31 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of the court, Pew said in a release.
Obama is favored by 88 percent of Democrats while 89 percent of Republicans favor Romney, who leads among independent voters 46 percent to 45 percent for Obama. The poll found 34 percent of Romney backers said they support him strongly, while 64 percent of Obama voters said they support him strongly.
The survey found 28 percent of registered voters said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the country and 67 percent said they were dissatisfied -- about the same result as the Pew poll has found in recent months.
Unemployment remains the No. 1 issue for voters overall. Forty-six percent said they favored Romney on the issue, and 42 percent favored Obama.
However, Romney has gone from an 8-point advantage on the question of which candidate is better able to improve the economy, to an 8-point deficit, trailing Obama on the issue 48 percent to 42 percent.
The poll was conducted by landline and cellphone June 28-July 9, 2012 among 2,973 adults, including 2,373 registered voters. The samples were weighted to account for demographic composition, with sampling errors taking into account the effect of weighting.
Pew said the survey has a 95 percent level of confidence for different groups.
