67% of voters favor casting vote by mail in November

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll says 58 percent of American voters support the nationwide reform of election policies that would allow voters to cast their ballots by mail.
• In addition, almost 10 percent more back a one-time exception for November for a total of two-thirds — 67 percent — in favor of the vote-by-mail rule.
• Meanwhile, 29 percent of respondents said they don’t agree with voting by mail for the 2020 and future elections.

Sixty-seven percent or two-thirds of all eligible voters in a most recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll said they are in favor of voting by mail for the November election.

The new poll released Tuesday found that 67 percent of registered voters agree that this year’s election should be held via mail.

That includes 58 percent who said voting by mail should be a permanent change and 9 percent who said it should only be allowed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 29 percent of respondents said they are against voting by mail for this and future elections.

A majority of respondents in the poll, 58 percent, said they generally approve of voting by mail, while 39 percent do not.

Voting by mail has seen an uptick in support over the past couple decades, NBC noted.

By comparison, a Pew News Interest Index poll in February 1996 found 48 percent of respondents supported mail-in voting, while 47 percent opposed. 

The results of the new poll were split along partisan lines. The poll found that 88 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans support mail-in voting for this election or generally.

Among those who would support a permanent change, 82 percent are Democrats, 61 percent are independents and 31 percent are Republicans.

This year, more than a dozen states have delayed presidential primary elections or changed to all-mail formats. Five states already conduct elections fully by mail, and more than half allow voters to submit absentee ballots through the mail. 

Democrats in Congress have called for a requirement for states to allow mail-in voting and for $4 billion in federal aid to assist in the expected increase in absentee voting in the fall if the coronavirus crisis continues. But Republicans, including President Trump, argue that mail-in voting would increase the likelihood of fraud.

The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll surveyed 900 registered voters April 13-15 and has a margin of error of 3.27 percentage points. 

The U.S. has the most coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, with more than 800,000 cases and 43,600 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

Source: AOL