THE TIMES POLL : Many Withhold Judgment in House Scandal : Public opinion: 50% say they are waiting to hear overdraft explanations before deciding whether to reelect officials. Damage to Democrats is unclear.

Americans in overwhelming numbers believe that the House bank overdraft scandal is a serious breach of ethics, but half said they would wait for an explanation from the lawmakers involved before deciding whether to vote against them, according to The Times Poll.

Reflecting the seriousness with which they view the scandal, two out of 10 of those polled said they would definitely vote against a House member who had written checks without sufficient funds on deposit, and another one in 10 said they would probably vote against such a representative.

Despite Republican attempts to label the Democratic House leadership as the culprits in the scandal, it was unclear if the damage so far has been limited to the Democrats. More than eight out of 10 of those polled said that neither party has an advantage on Capitol Hill when it comes to questions of ethics and honesty.

The results of the national survey, released Tuesday, show that the effect on those involved in the controversy depends heavily on how many checks they wrote and on what they have said to justify their conduct, as well as on the strength of their opponents.

It was clear, however, that voters were upset by recent reports that hundreds of current and former House members wrote thousands of overdrafts without penalty at the casually operated bank on Capitol Hill.

The Times Poll, a national telephone survey of 1,521 adults, was taken between March 27 and March 29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

According to the poll, about 31% of Americans said they would definitely or probably oppose reelection of House members implicated in the scandal, while 50% said they would wait to hear more from their representatives before reaching a decision. Sixteen percent said they would not vote against their representative on the issue.

House members who had many overdrafts, however, may face a stronger risk of retaliation at the polls in November. The poll found that 39% said they would definitely vote against lawmakers in this category and that another 15% said they probably would oppose them. Thirty-two percent said they would await more information from members who had overdrawn their accounts frequently.

In contrast, those members who wrote only a few bad checks would face strong opposition from only 10% and probable rejection from another 10%, while 44% said they would wait for more information and 33% said they would not regard that situation as a problem, the poll found.

The overdraft scandal has caught the attention of large numbers of voters. Nine out of 10 of those polled said they had heard of the scandal. However, details on the checking accounts of most House members still have not been released, leaving many voters uncertain of where their own representatives fit into the picture.

Thirty-two percent of those polled said they believe that their representative has been implicated, while 35% said they believe that their lawmakers are innocent of involvement. A third said they are uncertain of their lawmaker’s role.

Of those unsure of whether their representative had authored bad checks, the poll found that 21% said they would definitely vote against a lawmaker who was implicated in the scandal, while 7% said they would probably vote against such a representative. But 58% said they would await an explanation, and 11% said that it would not make any difference in their vote.

Republicans have sought to turn the House bank scandal to their advantage. Because Democrats outnumber Republicans in the House, 267 to 167, the scandal could hurt the Democrats more in numerical terms. Yet there is no evidence so far that voters see the affair as grounds for any broad rejection of Democrats.

The poll found that 84% of those responding believe that there is no difference in ethics or honesty between members of the two major parties.

In addition, 52% said they favor the Democrat in their own congressional districts, compared to a 37% who would back a Republican. That finding is a turnaround from the year-ago figures, when Republicans outpolled Democrats, 45% to 40%, in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War.

Even among those who believe that their representatives had many overdrafts, however, 49% said they would vote Democratic in a congressional race, while 40% would vote for Republicans--about the same as the 52%-37% party preference results overall.

Eighty-four percent of those polled said the scandal is a very serious or somewhat serious ethical problem that nearly all of them are watching closely.

The poll results continue to show that confidence in Congress is at a 20-year low.

In 1973, the percentage of Americans who had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress stood at 42%, according to the Gallup Poll. Since then, except for a brief surge in the mid-1980s, the confidence level has dropped sharply--to a mere 11% in the most recent survey.

In contrast, 47% now say they have very little confidence in Congress.

Yet among those polled, 51% rated their own member of Congress good on personal ethics and honesty, and another 11% rated their members excellent.

Forty-eight percent said their representative deserve to be reelected, while 35% dissented and 18% said they were still undecided--figures virtually unchanged from the period before the scandal began.

THE TIMES POLL / Voters Await an Explanation

Half the respondents to a Times Poll on the House bank scandal said they are waiting to hear from their representatives before deciding which way to vote on their reelection. An overwhelming majority also said they saw no difference between the two parties regarding honesty and ethics.

If you knew that your representative was one who had overdrawn his or her account at the House bank, how would you vote in the upcoming election? Definitely vote against: 21% Probably vote against: 10% Need to hear from representative before deciding: 50% Would not vote against: 16% Don’t know: 3%

When it comes to the level of ethics and honesty, do you think the Democrats in Congress are better than the Republicans, or are the Republicans better, or isn’t there much difference between the two? No difference: 84% Democrats better: 7% Republicans better: 6% Don’t know: 3% Source: Times Poll of 1,521 adults taken nationwide March 27-29.

Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points