A majority of voters believe that November’s election can be conducted safely in person, according to a new poll provided exclusively to The Spectator.
A Redfield and Wilton Strategies survey of 2,500 registered voters found that 66 percent either agree or strongly agree that social distancing measures can be enforced at polling stations and therefore the election can be held in person without creating a public health risk. Of those who may vote in the upcoming election, 56 percent said they would feel more comfortable than uncomfortable voting in person.
Dr Anthony Fauci said in mid-August that ‘there’s no reason’ voting in-person should not be safe, so long as people wore masks and socially distanced. Both President Trump and Joe Biden have agreed with this message. However, some Democrats have played up concerns about public health while pushing mail-in ballots on voters.
‘People should not have to choose between their health and their vote, and that’s very important,’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said.
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‘My major fear is that people are going to get sick and possibly even die from voting tomorrow,’ Kim Butler, the head of the Polk County Democratic party in Wisconsin, said ahead of the state’s primary election.
This disparate attitude toward the safety of in-person voting is reflected in the Redfield and Wilton poll. Seventy-five percent of likely Trump voters said they feel more comfortable than uncomfortable voting in person, while just 45 percent of likely Biden voters said the same.
Likely Biden voters are also more than twice as likely to vote by mail. Fifty-one percent said they intend to vote via mail-in or absentee ballot, while just 21 percent of likely Trump voters said they would vote by mail. FiveThirtyEight has suggested that this could lead to a ‘weird’ election night, where Trump appears to have won but then mail-in ballots counted over the next few days give Biden the victory.
