Voters Rate Obama Administration's Response to IRS Poorly

American voters still aren't convinced President Obama and his administration were unaware of the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of tea party and other conservative groups.

A new poll shows 59 percent of likely American voters think it's at least somewhat likely the president and his top aides knew about the targeting of conservative groups. That number includes 38 percent of voters who believe it's very likely the president or his top aides knew of the rogue IRS activity. Only 32 percent consider that unlikely.

The poll also showed 66 percent of voters believe the decision to target tea party and conservative groups came directly out of Washington, D.C., while only 19 percent believe the IRS' original claim that the decision was made by low-level employees at the Cincinnatti office.

Voters are also displeased with the Obama administration's handling of the scandal, with 44 percent considering the administration's response to date to be poor. They also believe those who were involved in the scandal should be jailed or fired -- 63 percent of voters believe IRS employees who targeted the political groups should be fired or locked up.

The IRS has remained silent on who actually made the decision to target the conservative groups, but recent reports have suggested the decision may have come from the IRS chief counsel who was named by Barack Obama in 2009.

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 20-21. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.