Democrats twice as likely as Republicans to be wary of in-person voting: poll

Democratic voters are more than twice as likely as Republican voters to be concerned about the risks of in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Ipsos-Axios polling released Tuesday.

A slight majority overall — 52 percent — said they see in-person voting as dangerous, according to the polling. The survey found a wide partisan split, with 64 percent of Democrats expressing concerns compared to just 29 percent of Republicans.

Overall, respondents said they considered several activities riskier than voting. Seventy percent said they think dining in at restaurants was dangerous, while 66 percent of parents said they thought sending their child to school was dangerous.

Eighty-four percent of respondents were concerned about the pandemic in general, including 59 percent who said they were “extremely” or “very” concerned.

Close to half of those polled, 46 percent, said they personally know someone who has tested positive for the virus. Forty-nine percent said someone in their community has tested positive.

Nearly one-fifth of respondents, 19 percent, said they know someone who has died. Four percent said they know a family member who has died. Black and Hispanic respondents were twice as likely as the general population to say a family member has died, with 8 percent saying so.

Meanwhile, only 29 percent of those surveyed said they have a fair or great amount of trust in the federal government to look out for their best interests during the crisis.

Two in three respondents said they wear a mask “at all times” when they leave their homes, including 48 percent of Republicans.

Forty-six percent of Americans polled said they made in-person visits to friends or family in the past week. Among those respondents, only 21 percent said they wore a mask throughout those visits.

The number of Americans saying they are self-quarantining has also fallen. Only 17 percent of respondents said they are self-quarantining, while 35 percent said they have gone out to eat in the last week.

The survey was conducted July 31-Aug. 3 based on a sample of 1,129 adults. It has a plus or minus 3-3.4 percentage-point margin of error for the entire sample.