As the United States prepares for a general election complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, a new finds that most Americans support making it easier to vote by mail in November.
The survey, conducted by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities, also reveals divides based on race, political affiliations and geography.
About 46% of African American respondents said they were more likely to vote in November if offered mail-in ballots. That鈥檚 compared to only about a third of white U.S. voters. Other races fell somewhere in between, with Hispanic and Asian Americans at 42% and 41%, respectively.
In the Mountain West, Colorado 鈥� which already conducts its elections by mail 鈥� ranks near the top in supporting mail-in ballots, whereas neighboring Wyoming is among the four states in the country where a majority of survey respondents did not support making mail-in voting easier. However, researchers point out that there were limited survey responses from Wyoming, leading to a larger-than-usual margin or error.
The West generally stands out in supporting voting by mail. More than 70% of respondents in four states 鈥� Oregon, Washington, California and Colorado 鈥� would like it to be easier.
Matthew Baum, a Harvard professor who co-authored a on the survey results, points out a political divide. While most people of either party either supported or didn鈥檛 care whether there were mail-in ballots, 32% of Republicans were against it versus 5% of Democrats.
Looking at historically non-partisan use of mail-in ballots, he attributes the disparity to the president鈥檚 statements against it.
If mail-in ballots sway tight elections, Baum said, 鈥淧resident Trump has opened the door to a possible line of attack against the outcome if you鈥檙e on the losing side 鈥� especially, presumably, if you鈥檙e a Republican.鈥�
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Beyond a partisan divide, Baum also said that those who were more concerned about COVID-19 in the survey were also more likely to support mail-in ballots.
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