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By Reuters 
4h ago
Chris Kahn and James Oliphant
As polling places closed across the United States on Tuesday, exit polls conducted by Edison Research provided insight into the top issues driving the presidential vote and an early read on voter support.
Here are some highlights from the poll, which is based on in-person interviews with voters on Tuesday, in-person interviews at early voting centers before Election Day, and telephone interviews with people who voted by mail.
In a story emerging on Election Night, Republican President Donald Trump was showing surprising strength with Latino voters in key states like Florida and Texas.
In Florida, according to exit polls, Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden were splitting the Latino vote. In 2016, Trump only won four out of 10 Latino voters in his race against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Overall, he was winning three out of 10 non-white voters compared to just two out of 10 four years ago.
Trump maintained his lead among white voters. According to exit polls from Edison Research, six in 10 white voters said they voted for Trump, unchanged from 2016.
Trump’s campaign made winning over Cuban-American voters in populous South Florida a priority by emphasizing the administration’s hard-line policy toward Cuba and Venezuela.
In Texas, four in 10 Hispanics voted for Trump, up from three in 10 in 2016, according to exit polls in that state.
Edison’s national exit poll showed that while Biden led Trump among non-white voters, Trump had received a slightly higher proportion of the vote from non-white voters than in 2016.
The poll showed that about 11% of African Americans, 31% of Hispanics and 30% of Asian Americans voted for Trump, 3% more than in 2016 among the three groups.
Trump may need his best performance with non-white voters to make up for losses within his traditional political base. He appears to have lost support among white men and older people in Georgia and Virginia, key parts of the Republican voter base, according to Edison’s polls.
While Trump is still winning the majority of those voters, some of them switched to supporting Biden, exit polls showed.
Edison’s polls showed that Trump won seven out of 10 white men in Georgia, up from an eight-in-10 lead over Clinton in 2016. While Trump is winning six out of 10 voters who are at least 65 years old in Georgia, that is less than seven. at 10 four years ago.
Final election results for both states have yet to be posted, but Biden is expected to win in Virginia. Clinton also won the state in 2016.
In Virginia, Trump earned six out of 10 white men without college degrees, up from seven out of 10 in 2016. Trump also earned six out of 10 white men in Virginia, down from seven out of 10 in 2016.
In more encouraging news for the president, Trump was winning over six out of 10 Virginia voters who had an income of $ 100,000 or more.
Edison Research national survey results revealed deep concern over the coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 9.4 million people in the United States this year and killed more than 230,000.
While only two in 10 voters nationally said that Covid-19 was the issue that mattered most in their election for president, half of American voters believe it is more important to contain the coronavirus even if it hurts the economy.
Trump has made the full opening of the US economy a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, even as infections continue to rise. Biden has claimed that Trump does not deserve a second term due to his handling of the pandemic.
In the national exit poll, four out of 10 voters said they thought the effort to contain the virus was “very bad.” In the battlefield states of Florida and North Carolina, five out of 10 voters said the national response to the pandemic was “somewhat or very badly.”
Six in 10 said the pandemic had created at least moderate financial hardship. Seven in 10 said that wearing a mask in public was a “public health responsibility” compared to three in 10 who saw it as a personal choice.
The poll found that nine out of 10 voters had already decided who to vote for before October, and nine out of 10 voters said they were confident their state would accurately count the votes.
Other issues that were high-priority for voters included the economy, racial inequality, crime and security, and health policy.
Edison compiles exit polls and live election results for the National Election Pool media consortium.
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