Poll: Half of public engaged in election, political news

Nearly half of the public calls itself greatly engaged in politics and elections — a spike from past non-presidential election years, according to a new poll.

An Associated Press-GFK poll released Thursday found 48 percent of people said they follow the news about politics and elections a great deal or quite a bit of the time. 

{mosads}Another 28 percent of people said they follow the news only some of the time, while 21 percent said they have very little interest in it. 

The poll found that 30 percent of people said they are more interested now than they were four years ago. Fifty-six percent said they have about the same level of interest, while 11 percent said they have less interest. 

Of those who have lost interest in the last four years, 73 percent said it has something to do with their negative feelings toward politicians. 

The poll came during the final week of the race for governor in New Jersey and Virginia and amid the second month of the healthcare law’s implementation. 

The AP noted that the spike in interest comes even as other polls have found congressional and presidential approval at record lows. Congress’s approval rating hangs in the low double digits while President Obama’s stands at 40 percent, according to Gallup’s daily tracking poll. 

While engagement now does not match the level reached during presidential elections, the poll found interest is up compared to similar off years.

The poll surveyed 1,227 people on a Web-based system. It holds a 3.4 percentage point margin of error.