Wednesday, November 6

New Poll Shows Majority Approves Early Voting and Election Day Holiday

Ohio realizó en 2020 su primera elección por correo debido al coronavirus.
Ohio held in 2020 his first election by mail due to the coronavirus.

Photo: MEGAN JELINGER / AFP / Getty Images

EFE

For: EFE Updated 20 Jan 2022, : pm EST

MIAMI – The 80 % of Americans favor that states hold early voting1211232916 for at least two weeks before of the elections and supports that become a federal holiday on election day, according to a national survey released this Thursday by the University of South Florida (USF).

The survey, conducted among a thousand voters , details that the majority supports the key provisions of the bill known as the “Freedom to Vote Act”, which suffered a setback this Wednesday in the US Senate due to the unanimous blockade of the Republican opposition and divisions within the Democrats.

The initiative, promoted by President Joe Biden, seeks change the way Americans register to vote and cast ballots to protect the right to vote to.

The voting rights bill that the Democrats wanted to pass in the Senate would have guaranteed the right to early voting and voting by mail, in addition to establishing that the Election Day is a national holiday, which could increase turnout since the US always holds the election on a weekday Tuesday in November.

The survey, conducted between 6 and 20 of last January, before the failure of the initiative to reform the federal electoral law in the Senate, showed that a majority approves several of the proposals.

The 64 % agree to require that states allow voter registration on election day itself and on 63 % that states are required to allow voting by mail.

Same way, a 63 % believe that states should be required to allow online voter registration.

“While there is widespread support for electoral reforms, most Americans say they should apply for a valid photo ID to vote”, detailed the USF.

A large majority of those surveyed (83 %) says voters should be required to show valid photo ID when voting.

USF researchers associated with Florida International University (FIU) further noted that Americans are divided on the safety of voting by mail .

The 50 % of respondents believe that voting by mail is less secure than voting in person, while that the 44 % said that it is almost himself.

The interviewees are also strongly divided on the impartiality of the national elections: the 52 % were “very” or “somewhat sure” that “they are carried out fairly” and the 46 % said they “didn’t have much confidence” or “any”.

The 85 % of Democrats they were “very” or “somewhat confident”, compared to only the 27 % of Republicans and the 54 % of Independents.

On the other hand, a small majority of Americans would favor a change to a national popular vote by elect the president, but they are divided on the electoral implications of such a change, according to the poll conducted by a margin of d e error of plus or minus 3%.

The 52 % say they would be in favor of a change to the current Electoral College system and the 69 % feel this would significantly change the outcome of the US election.