Two in three Americans expect coronavirus to disrupt Presidential election
More people thought the election would be disrupted than were at least somewhat confident that the election will be fair and accurate.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSA resident drops off a mail-in ballot during the special election for Maryland's 7th congressional district seat, Maryland, U.S., April 28, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS//TOM BRENNER)
Two thirds of Americans think the Presidential election, due to be held in just over six months' time, will be disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey has found.The figure meant that more people thought the election would be disrupted than were at least somewhat confident that the election will be fair and accurate.With the coronavirus continuing to impact most areas of life, 67% of Americans surveyed said they thought there would be some disruption to the election resulting from the virus, but the results were not evenly split between the supporters of the two main parties.The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that 80% of Democrats and Democratically-inclined independents expected there to be disruption, against just half of Republicans and Republican-leaners.The survey also found growing support for postal voting, which has been touted as an alternative which would allow for the election to be conducted while maintaining social distancing. Overall, 70% of respondents said that people should be allowed to vote by post if they wanted to, including 44% who strongly supported postal voting.But voters were split along the party divide on the issue. Overwhelmingly, Democrats favored anyone being able to vote by mail if they wanted to, (87%), a figure which includes nearly two thirds (63%) who strongly favored the policy.Republicans, meanwhile, are evenly split on the issue of universal postal voting, with 49% in favor and 50% against.And just over half - 52% - of Americans said that all elections ought to be conducted by postal ballot, up from 34% in 2018, an increase of 18 percentage points. However, this increase was mostly driven by a rise in Democrat support for the measure, which rose from 40% to 69% in two years.During the same time period, Republican support for conducting all elections via mail increased only marginally, from 26% to 32%. This sharp rise in Democrat support has widened the partisan gap on the issue, from 14 points to 37.Yet despite the overall support for postal ballots, just 59% of those surveyed expressed at least some confidence that the Presidential election in November would be conducted fairly and accurately. 63% agreed that all citizens who want to will be able to vote.Again, this result was split along party lines: 75% of Republicans were confident in the fairness and accuracy of the election, while 87% believe that all who want to vote will be able to do so. By contrast, just 46% of Democrats said they believed the election would be fair and accurate, while even fewer - 43% - said all who wanted to vote will be able to.Finally, respondents were asked whether all eligible citizens should be automatically registered to vote, and whether those who don't vote or confirm their registration should automatically be removed.Again, the divide was strongly along party lines, with Democrats being largely in favour of automatic registration (84%) but opposed to automatic removal (24% in favor), against the 53% of Republicans who support automatic registration, and the 63% who support automatic removal.The survey was conducted April 7-12 among 4,917 U.S. adults on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel.
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