A majority of voters wants the Senate to vote this year on President Obama’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, according to a new poll.
Fifty-two percent of registered voters said the Senate should vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland, who Obama nominated last month, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Three in 10 say the vacancy should remain until the next president takes office, and 18 percent have no opinion.
The desire for a vote has grown month-to-month. In February, 43 percent said the Senate should vote this year, and 48 percent said the same in March. In turn, the percent saying the Senate should wait has also decreased by 12 points total since February.
The Senate hold is strongly partisan, and public’s view on the vacancy is as well.
Among Democrats, 76 percent want a vote before Obama’s presidency ends, while 56 percent of Republicans want to see the seat unfilled. Overall, 52 percent of voters disapprove of the Republican Senate’s decision to not vote on Garland.
The poll was conducted April 10-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points; the number of those surveyed was not revealed.
