First Exit Poll in US Elections Claims Voters More Concerned About the Economy Than Covid

The first US presidential exit poll claims that voters are far more concerned about rebuilding the economy than the coronavirus.

CNN’s poll of American voters, released shortly after 5 p.m. EST Tuesday, found that a third of voters, 34%, rated the economy as their key problem when deciding whether to vote for Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

A total of 21% said that racial inequality was their most pressing issue when casting their vote, and only 18% said that Covid helped them decide which man to vote for. Security, health and crime policy ranked fourth in the poll, with 11% of voters saying those issues influenced their presidential election.

The CNN poll also showed that 48% of people thought Donald Trump’s response to the Covid crisis was going well, compared to 51% who said it was mishandled.

The majority of voters, 32%, said that the main quality they were looking for in a candidate was a strong leader, and 24% said they wanted someone with good judgment.

Just over a fifth, 21%, said they wanted a candidate “who cares about people like me, while 19% said they wanted a president” who can unite the country.

The poll, which did not name a likely presidential winner, could spell good news for Donald Trump, amid contempt for his handling of the crisis, and claims it would cost him re-election.

But there was also a ray of hope for Biden. A separate question asked of voters showed that 52% said containing coronavirus was the issue to be prioritized by whoever won, compared to 41% who said rebuilding the economy was the most important.

Biden has attacked Donald Trump for failing to contain the pandemic, which had infected 9.3 million Americans and killed more than 232,000 on Election Day.

He promised to make crisis management the priority should he win, and proposed a possible national shutdown or a mandate to order Americans to wear masks in public.

Meanwhile, the CNN poll also found that 93% of the people who voted made up their minds on which candidate more than a week ago, and only 4% did so in the last week.

Exit polls in US elections are notoriously unreliable, and political analysts caution that the final result may not reflect the concerns expressed by voters surveyed by CNN.

The poll said the economy was the most important deciding factor for voters, with 34% of the voters polled rating it number one. This was followed by racial inequality at 21% and the coronavirus in third place with 18%.

No state polls had closed when the exit poll was published, and the states that closed earlier, Indiana and Kentucky, will not close until 6 p.m. EST.

Alaska polls will be the last to close and will not close until 1 am EST.

The 2020 elections have seen a record turnout, with more than 100 million votes cast Tuesday night.