According to the poll results, Former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican candidate for governor, is perceived more favorably by state residents than any of the top Democrats who also hope to win the office this fall.

McCrory is the only Republican campaigning to be governor.

John Robinson, Director of communications for the Elon University Poll, said the results show a lot of uncertainty.

“Pat McCrory on the Republican side, who lost a very close race four years ago to Governor Bev Perdue but 50 percent of the people that we talked with don’t  know him well enough to form a favorable or unfavorable opinion. Sixty percent said they don't have enough to have an opinion about Bob Etheridge who has represented the state in one elected office or another for more than 20 years and 68 percent said they don't know enough about Walter Dalton who is the current Lieutenant Governor,” said Robinson.
                               
Seventy-seven percent said they don’t know enough about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Faison.

Robinson said respondents were also asked where they received most of their news about the upcoming primary elections. Forty two percent said television, 24 percent said Internet, 11 percent said newspapers, 10 percent said radio and 7 percent said talking to people.

According to Robinson, nearly half of state residents also disapprove of the way the North Carolina General Assembly is doing its job.

"Here we are a week before the primary and people are not quite sure when they get into the election booth that they have enough information about any of these candidates, but particularly the Democratic side. That either means that voters will do an awful lot of homework or the candidates that have the best organizations who will get their supporters to the polls will be the victors," said Robinson.

The poll, conducted April 22-25, surveyed 640 North Carolina residents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.87 percentage points. The sample is of the population in general, with numbers that include both landlines and cellular phones.

The Elon University Poll does not restrict respondents by voter eligibility or likelihood of voting.