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Voters are divided on the main issues in their vote for president, according to preliminary results of a national CNN exit poll.
About a third rated the economy as their most critical issue, while about 1 in 5 cited racial inequality and about 1 in 6 cited the coronavirus pandemic as the most important to their vote. About 1 in 10 cited health care policy and crime and violence as their main problem.
Although they cited the economy more than the coronavirus as their biggest issue in choosing a candidate, a narrow majority say the nation’s priority now should be to contain the coronavirus over rebuilding the economy.
That finding comes when most voters feel the nation’s efforts to contain the virus are going awry. With coronavirus cases on the rise in many states, nearly 7 in 10 voters say they see wearing a mask as a public health responsibility rather than a personal choice.
Opinions on everything related to the coronavirus divide voters based on political leanings. Supporters of President Donald Trump are much more likely to call the economy their top issue (about 6 in 10 of the president’s supporters say so) than to cite the coronavirus (only 5% feel that way), while among those Supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden cite the coronavirus (about 3 in 10) more than the economy (about 1 in 10).
About 7 in 10 Trump supporters say rebuilding the economy should be the nation’s priority over containing the spread of the virus, while among Biden supporters, nearly 8 in 10 go the other way, saying containing the coronavirus should be the highest priority.
Roughly half of voters say the country’s economy is in bad shape, though more say they are better off today than four years ago (about 4 out of 10) who say they are worse off today (2 out of 10) . Still, most say they are experiencing financial difficulties as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Voters found the experience of casting their vote to be largely easy, although there is a large gap between the proportion of white voters who say it was very easy (about three-quarters) and the proportion of black voters who feel the same ( almost half).
About half overall say they are very confident that votes in their states will be cast and counted accurately, about the same as four years ago.
With a surge of early voters and absentee voting this year, very few made a decision in the final days of the campaign: just 4% say they made a decision in the last week, and nearly three-quarters said they made a decision. decision before September.
The poll suggests a high level of new voter turnout. About 1 in 8 say 2020 is the first year they have voted, roughly on par with those who said it in 2008.
CNN’s exit polls are a combination of in-person interviews with Election Day voters and telephone polls that measure the views of absentee and early voters, and were conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the Group. National Elections. In-person interviews on Election Day were conducted in a random sample of 115 polling places across the country among 7,774 Election Day voters. The results also include 4,919 interviews conducted by telephone with early absentee voters.
The results for the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points; is larger for subgroups.
