Pew Research Study on Voting Access Reveals More Partisan Divisiveness
From We are America the Beautiful blog on April 28, 2021
Pew Research released a study last week on the views of 5,109 Americans conducted April 5-11, 2021 regarding voting and election policies. While there were a few policies that both parties mostly agreed on, the majority of questions showed large partisan divisions. A few questions also displayed divisions within the party by race.
In general, the majority of Republicans are in favor of in-person early voting and absentee voting if the person has a specified reason, Republicans are also in favor of removing people from the voter rolls if they have not voted in recent elections; the majority of Democrats are in favor of expanding voting by automatically registering eligible Americans, allowing for early and absentee voting without documentation, and keeping people on the voter rolls whether they have voted recently or not. The majority of all parties and races favor allowing formerly convicted felons to vote after they have served their sentences.
Automatically registering people to vote:
Total: 61%
Democrats: 82%
Republicans: 38%
White Republicans: 35%
Hispanic Republicans: 51%
White Democrats: 85%
Hispanic Democrats: 78%
Black: 78%
Asian: 89%
Allowing convicted felons to vote after serving their sentences:
Total: 70%
Democrats: 84%
Republicans: 55%
White: 67%
White Republicans: 53%
Hispanic Republicans: 66%
White Democrats: 87%
Hispanic Democrats: 75%
Hispanic: 70%
Black: 85%
Asian: 71%
Making early in-person voting available for at least 2 weeks before Election Day:
Total: 78%
Democrats: 91%
Republicans: 63%
White: 75%
Black: 86%
Hispanic: 79%
Asian: 82%
Making Election Day a national holiday:
Total: 68%
Democrats: 78%
Republicans: 59%
White Republicans: 57%
Hispanic Republicans: 66%
White Democrats: 81%
Hispanic Democrats: 75%
Black: 86%
Asians: 79%
Requiring electronic voting machines to print a paper backup of the ballot:
Total: 82%
Democrats: 81%
Republicans: 86%
White: 86%
Black: 78%
Hispanic: 74%
Asian: 82%
Requiring all voters to show a government-issued photo ID to vote:
Total: 76%
Democrats: 61%
Republicans: 93%
White Republicans: 96%
Hispanic Republicans: 90%
White Democrats: 54%
Hispanic Democrats: 72%
Black: 65%
Asian Democrats: 71%
Any voter should be able to vote early or absentee without a documented reason:
Total: 63%
Republicans: 38%
Democrats: 84%
Black: 81%
Hispanic: 63%
Asian: 67%
College grad: 74%
No college degree: 57%
Republican Voters who have voted absentee or early voting are more likely to favor no-excuse absentee voting:
52% of Republicans who voted early or absentee in the 2020 election are in favor of this policy
22% of Republicans who voted in person say the same
A voter should only be allowed to vote early or absentee if they have a documented reason for not voting in person on Election Day:
Total: 36%
Republican: 62%
Democrat: 16%
On the question of removing people from voter rolls if they have not voted in recent elections:
Total: 46%
Republican: 68%
Democrat: 27%
Redistricting Proposal: nearly half of American adults surveyed favor a bill that would require states to create bipartisan committees of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans to decide on new districts following the 2020 census instead of the state legislatures doing the same:
Total:
Disapprove: 13%
Approve: 49%
Not Sure: 38%
Democrat Approve: 59%
Democrat Disapprove: 8%
Democrat Not Sure: 32%
Republican Approve: 38%
Republican Disapprove: 19%
Republican Not Sure: 42%
Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/04/22/republicans-and-democrats-move-further-apart-in-views-of-voting-access/