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Voters Rate Economy, Health Care As Most Important Issues

As voters around the country hit the polls on Tuesday, the most important issue on their minds was the economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Eighty-two percent (82%) of Likely U.S. Voters rated the economy as number one on a list of 10 important issues in a survey taken Monday and Tuesday nights.  It's remained at the top of the list of issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports for several years now.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In that same time period, government ethics and corruption has often fallen just below the economy.  But since July, the issue of health care has taken its place.  Seventy-nine percent (79%) now say health care is a Very Important issue, a finding that has steadily increased since passage of the health care bill in late March.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of those who voted on Tuesday nationwide favor repeal of the new national health care law, according to Rasmussen Reports exit polling.  Separate polling also finds that voters overwhelmingly believe the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives is likely to vote to repeal the unpopular law. 

The issue of Social Security has climbed two spots from the previous survey to third place, with 67% of voters now regarding this issue as Very Important. President Obama's special bipartisan deficit commission is expected to report back soon on ways to make Social Security financial viable.

 (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The surveys of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on October 28-29 & November 1-2, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

U.S. troops are fighting in Afghanistan, but the war was scarcely mentioned on the campaign trail this fall. How important is the war there to voters these days? Was immigration a priority for most voters this election?  Become a Platinum Member to find out.

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