Most Americans think early voting should be made easier and voters should be required to show photo identification when casting a ballot, according to the latest survey from Monmouth University Poll.
The majority of respondents said it should be easier to vote early in-person, while about half said mail-in voting should be made easier. Most Americans also voiced support for an ID requirement, with less than 1 in 5 opposing the policy.
- 71% said in-person early voting should be easier, 16% said it should be harder.
- 50% said mail-in voting should be easier, 39% said it should be harder.
- 80% support requiring a photo ID in order to vote, 18% oppose an ID requirement.
Monmouth notes that both policies have bipartisan support, with the vast majority of Democrats and just over half of Republicans supporting making early voting easier. Almost all Republicans support voter ID laws, while just over half of Democrats say the same.
- 89% of Democrats want to make early voting easier.
- 68% of independents want to make early voting easier.
- 56% of Republicans want to make early voting easier.
- 62% of Democrats support a photo ID requirement.
- 87% of independents support a photo ID requirement.
- 91% of Republicans support a photo ID requirement.
However, only Democrats showed strong support for easier mail-in voting.
- 84% of Democrats want mail-in voting to be easier.
- 40% of independents want mail-in voting to be easier.
- 26% of Republicans want mail-in voting to be easier.
The poll also found that most Americans, 69%, think that there should be national guidelines for mail-in and early voting in-person for federal elections.
“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,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
Most Americans told Monmouth that voting disenfranchisement is a major problem in the United States than voter fraud, 50% to 37%. Democrats were more likely to cite disenfranchisement as a problem while Republicans were more likely to say voter fraud is a major problem.
“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,” said Murray.
The survey also found that about one-third of Americans, 32%, think that President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election because of voter fraud.
“The continuing efforts to question the validity of last year’s election is deepening the partisan divide in ways that could have long-term consequences for our Democracy, even if most Americans don’t quite see it that way yet,” Murray added.
Monmouth polled 810 adults across the country from June 9 to 14, 2021 with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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