National Poll: Majority Support Voter ID And Want In-Person Voting To Be Easier
In the midst of political maneuvering about election integrity and voter suppression, a new national survey finds that the majority of Americans favor requiring voter identification and making early voting more accessible.
In addition, according to a Monmouth University poll published on Monday, the public is split on whether or not to extend voting by mail.
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Eight out of ten people polled favor requiring voter ID, with 91 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of independents, and 62 percent of Democrats supporting it.
In-person early voting ahead of Election Day should be made simpler, according to just over seven out of ten people (71 percent). 89 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents, and 56 percent of Republicans agree with this.
NATIONAL POLL: 80% support requiring photo ID to vote, but 71% also want in-person early voting to be easier.
50% want to make vote-by-mail easier; 39% want it to be harder.
69% support national guidelines for early voting and #VBM.#votingrightshttps://t.co/2ZZbD8whKy
— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) June 21, 2021
When it comes to voting by mail, though, the bipartisan support vanishes.
Overall, half of those polled favor making it simpler to vote by mail, while 39% advocate making it more difficult. There’s also a political split, with 84 percent of Democrats supporting it but just 40% of independents and 26% of Republicans.
According to the poll, slightly over two-thirds of Americans (69%) favor implementing national rules to allow for vote-by-mail and in-person early voting in federal elections throughout the country, with just a quarter opposing it. 92 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents, and 51 percent of Republicans support.
“The poll contains some seemingly conflicting information on voter access. The bottom line seems to be that most Democrats and Republicans want to take the potential for election results to be questioned off the table. The problem, though, is they aren’t likely to agree on how to get there,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray wrote.
Due to strong health concerns about in-person voting at busy polling places during the coronavirus epidemic, there was a spike in absentee balloting and voting by mail last year. Many states changed their voting laws to make voting by absentee ballot and mail simpler. But, at the time, President Trump blasted against the increase of mail-in voting, saying that it would lead to massive fraud.
Fourteen states with Republican control of the state legislature have signed laws tightening voting access to the polls. They claim that the changes would improve voting integrity, while Democrats fear that the legislation will be used to suppress voters. Democrats in Congress are attempting to pass a broad election and campaign finance reform package that would counter state legislation enacted by Republicans, but it does not seem that Senate Democrats will be able to pass the bill during an anticipated floor vote later this week.
Voting disenfranchisement is cited as a significant issue by half of those polled, compared to 37% who cite voter fraud as a major issue.
“Disenfranchising eligible voters is nominally a bigger concern than voter fraud, but the sizable number of Americans who cling to the view that fraud determined the 2020 election poses an intractable challenge for reaching any public consensus on voting access,” Murray said.
The Monmouth survey was conducted over the phone with 810 people from around the country from June 9 to 14. The total sample error for the poll is 3.5 percentage points.
