72% Think Presidential Campaigns Run Too Long

As the nation braces itself for another race for the White House, voters say enough is enough.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Likely U.S. Voters think presidential election campaigns last too long. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 18% disagree, with 10% more undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

There’s little partisan disagreement on this, although voters not affiliated with either of the major parties believe it a bit more strongly. Tea Party voters (62%) don’t feel quite as strongly as those who are not members of the grass roots movement (75%) that presidential contests last too long.

In May 2007, 58% of American Adults complained that the 2008 presidential campaign had begun too soon, but Republicans believed that much more than Democrats did.

Voters are fairly satisfied with the number of debates in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, but most don’t think debate moderators ask enough about the major issues facing the nation. 

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 2-3, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.