The latest Elon Poll shows the North Carolina General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory dipping in their approval ratings, but the poll’s directors say this is far from signaling a change in party control in 2014.

McCrory saw his approval ratings go from 46.1 percent in the April Elon Poll to 36.1 percent in September’s.

The North Carolina General Assembly also saw a drop from April’s poll to September’s, going from 35.2 percent support to 32.3 percent.

Kenneth Fernandez, director of the Elon Poll, said what will signal a change in the General Assembly is whether people are motivated by the legislative action, not by poll responses. He also pointed out the Elon Poll showed many North Carolinians support other actions by the General Assembly, like voter ID and drilling for natural gas.

“Whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or a pundit, you could see strong support or strong opposition to the General Assembly in these results,” Fernandez said.

With the next election for North Carolina’s governor more than three years away, these results are even murkier for McCrory’s reelection bid.

“It would be foolish to speculate how this will impact the governor’s chances,” said Jason Husser, assistant director of the Elon Poll.

New N.C. laws

Seventy percent of North Carolinians support the state’s new voter ID law, and although voter ID was one of the biggest issues addressed by the Moral Monday protestors during the summer, Fernandez said it is unlikely to push voters to vote democratic next November.

“A lot of people will give their opinions on voter ID, but they will not be losing a lot of sleep over it,” Fernandez said.

While voter ID has consistently had support in polls of North Carolinians, Fernandez said this is the first time a majority of any demographic has opposed the measure. In this Elon Poll, 54 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of African-Americans oppose voter ID.

Although 51 percent of state voters believe there should be more restrictions on handguns, Fernandez said the new state laws that allow concealed carry of firearms in a wider number of areas, like parks and bars, will not be enough to stir voters. Instead, there would need to be some sort of incident or tragedy in conjunction with guns in bars or parks to push voters in that direction.

Eighty percent of respondents said teachers in North Carolina are paid too little and 53 percent support teacher tenure. Husser said it is difficult to ask about tenure because each side of the issue has a different definition for tenure. But he said Elon Polls have shown a consistent view that teachers are paid too little.

National issues

With health care exchanges set to open soon as part of the Affordable Care Act, the Elon Poll found that 50 percent of North Carolinians believe the law will make things worse. This is the first Elon Poll to refer to the law as “the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.”

“When you call it Obamacare, people stop thinking about the law and start thinking about the politics,” Fernandez said.

While he said not all political scientists and pollsters agree with referring to the law as “Obamacare” in the poll, Fernandez said that when testing the poll, people would not know what law he was referring to unless he used the phrase “Obamacare.”

“Obamacare is a law that has a lot of political baggage and we wanted to see how that changes over time,” Fernandez said.

Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., is up for reelection in 2014 and the Elon Poll found 38 percent of voters approve of her, and Husser said this is not a strong sign for the senator.

“Senators can be the most popular elected official in their state, so she’s not doing too well,” he said.

The Elon Poll did not see how voters felt about Hagan versus Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the House in the General Assembly.

“Tillis is in a campaign for money and for journalists right now, but not yet for voters,” Husser said.

The Elon Poll was conducted from Sept. 13-16, with 701 respondents.