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Poll Shows Voters Split On Presidential Candidates' Tax Returns

About half of those surveyed in a new poll of voters in three swing states thought presidential candidates should release multiple years of their tax returns.

The Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll of voters in the battleground states of Colorado, Wisconsin and Virginia found that the disclosure by candidates of multiple years of taxes had the support of 48 percent in Colorado and 52 percent in the other two states.

So those who have called for Mitt Romney, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, to make several years of his tax returns public appear to have plenty of support.

But Romney apparently has a lot of people who see things his way, too. A three-state average of around 19 percent of those surveyed thought it was all right for presidential candidates to release just one or two years of tax returns.

And an average of 25 percent in the three states said it wasn't necessary for candidates to release any tax returns at all, meaning that almost as many people were on Romney's side of the issue as were on the side wanting to see many more years of a candidate's returns.

One interesting thing to know would be if the split in views is among the 9 percent or so of voters who say they could still change their minds.

Also, it's possible that voters who don't care about candidates' tax returns might change their view if they had more information about what the returns can reveal about a candidate's finances.

In any event, there appears to be plenty of support for Democrats to continue pounding away at Romney on the tax returns, and as much support for Romney to stand firm.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Frank James joined NPR News in April 2009 to launch the blog, "The Two-Way," with co-blogger Mark Memmott.