WASHINGTON (HPD) — 71% of Americans believe the future of the country is at stake in November’s midterm elections, when control of Congress will be defined and various state governments will be renewed, a poll released Monday reveals. .
The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals that voters are motivated to vote despite intense pessimism and discontent with the political situation in the country.
With less than a month to go before the November 8 elections, 80% of those surveyed said that voting this year will be very or extremely important.
That goes for both Republicans and Democrats, albeit for diametrically opposite reasons.
The survey reveals how this year’s elections are taking place in a unique environment, in which voters are exhausted from the political situation, but at the same time they are determined to participate and try to change it. This could lead to a large turnout at the polls.
Since the 2018 midterm elections, the population has become more pessimistic about the situation in the country and the rights of the people: 70% are dissatisfied with the national situation, compared to 58% in October four years ago.
Republicans are intensely unhappy now that a Democrat is president. And while Democrats are less dissatisfied compared to when Donald Trump was president, they are still quite unsettled about where the country is headed.
Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed say they are dissatisfied with the state of individual rights and freedoms, up from 42% in 2018. Some two-thirds of Republicans are dissatisfied on that front, up from 50% when Trump was president. Among Democrats, the trend has remained more or less unchanged: about half say they are dissatisfied.
Most voters, both Republicans and Democrats, say the election will have a significant impact on the abortion issue, though Democrats are more likely to think so. Majorities in both parties say the elections will have a major impact on the national economic situation.
Most voters trust Republicans more in the economic area (39% vs. 29%) and in the crime area (38% vs. 23%). Republicans also have a slight edge on immigration (38% vs. 33%).
However, Democrats have the edge on abortion (45% vs. 22%), health care (42% vs. 25%), and election laws (39% vs. 29%).
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The HPD-NORC survey of 961 adults and was conducted between October 6 and 10 using an AmeriSpeak sample, representative of the entire US population. It has a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.