Voters get point across in exit polls

Many uninspired by tea party, say rich get too many breaks

WASHINGTON— Want to know what American voters really think? Most say the wealthy get unfair breaks. They’re tepid toward the tea party, divided about gay marriage. And they’re in no rush to deport illegal workers.

Surveyed at their polling places, the voters spoke out on all sorts of political hot potatoes in exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and TV networks.

Sure, they were asked lots about President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and the economy.

But the 2012 electorate spoke on other issues you may have missed. Some highlights:

The rich

The 99 percenters who camped out on Wall Street aren’t alone in worrying about income inequality. A full 55 percent of voters say the U. S. economic system generally favors the wealthy. Only 39 percent think the system is fair to most Americans.

So perhaps it’s unsurprising that nearly half want to increase taxes on people with family incomes over $ 250,000 per year, as Obama proposes.

Only 4 percent of voters say their incomes are that high.

The tea party

Voters are more against the tea party than for it. But few are worked up about the low- tax, small- government movement that helped Republicans take control of the House in 2010 and hang onto it Tuesday. The biggest share — 42 percent — feel neutral about it.

Thirty percent oppose the movement; 21 percent are supporters.

Illegal immigration

Voters are open to the idea of letting some illegal workers stay.

Sixty- five percent said most illegal immigrants working in the United States should be offered a chance to apply for legal status. That’s more than double the number who said most should be deported.

Even among Republicans, the party associated with crackdowns on illegal immigration, about half favored a path toward staying in the U. S.

Obama care

It still causes a rift. More than two years after Obama’s health care law was passed, a fourth of voters want the whole thing thrown out. Yet just as many think Obama care should be not only kept on the books, but expanded.

As a whole, it inspires more negative than positive feelings. About half — 49 percent — think at least some parts of the law should be repealed, compared with 44 percent who want to keep it.

Abortion

The voters are clear: a solid majority wants to keep abortion legal.

Fifty- nine percent say abortion should be legal either in all or most cases. In contrast, 36 percent say it should be illegal all or most of the time.

The survey of 26,565 voters was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research. This includes preliminary results from interviews conducted as voters left a random sample of 350 precincts nationally Tuesday, as well as 4,408 who voted early or absentee and were interviewed by landline or cellular telephone from Oct. 29 through Nov. 4. Results for the full sample were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.