Voters appear satisfied that a proper balance has been struck between individual rights and national security as Congress finally agrees on an overhaul of federal wiretapping legislation, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey.

Twenty-seven percent (27%) of voters say the balance now is about right, while 32% say the legal system worries too much about protecting individual rights. But countering that is an identical 32% of voters who feel legal authorities worry too much about protecting national security.

One thing voters overwhelmingly agree, however, is that the government needs a search warrant if it wants internet providers or telecommunications companies to turn over customer records: 69% say so, as opposed to only 17% who say a search warrant is not necessary.

The survey was taken Tuesday night as the months-long negotiations between congressional Democrats and Republicans over the revamped Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) were coming to a close.

Earlier this year, 32% said there was too much concern about national security and 25% thought there was too much concern about individual liberties.

House negotiators yesterday announced a bipartisan deal on the FISA which governs how the intelligence community will conduct wiretapping in the future. The compromise allows telecommunications companies to avoid lawsuits for past cooperation with the government on wiretaps after 9/11, despite the lack of a search warrant.

Democrats initially opposed any such immunity, saying Americans were being wiretapped without proper legal authority. But the Bush administration claimed the wiretaps in question involved possible foreign terrorists whose calls were going through U.S.-based telecommunications equipment.

A vote in the House on the measure could come as early as today (Friday).

By a slight margin in the new survey, voters say 44% to 41% that the telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government without a search warrant should be subject to lawsuits, but 15% are undecided. The findings reflect the partisan divide in Congress on the issue, with 59% of Democrats saying the companies should not have immunity, while 63% of Republicans think they should. Forty-six percent (46%) of unaffiliated voters oppose immunity compared to 40% who support it.

While the warrantless wiretapping issue has been a highly contentious partisan issue for months now in Washington, the new survey finds though that voters trust the presidential candidates of both parties equally when it comes to establishing guidelines for wiretapping and other surveillance techniques: 43% give the edge to John McCain; 42% favor Barack Obama, and 15% remain undecided.

For most Americans, the issue is a theoretical one anyway since 75% say it isn’t likely that their telephones have ever been tapped by the federal government. Only 6% believe it is Very Likely their phones have been tapped. Another 9% say it is Somewhat Likely.

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