Pennsylvania voters take to the polls in Harrisburg on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022.
Amanda Berg / For Spotlight PA
F&M polls suggest Pa. voters want voting reforms
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Scott LaMar
Amanda Berg / For Spotlight PA
Pennsylvania voters take to the polls in Harrisburg on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022.
Aired; April 8th, 2024.
The April 2024 Franklin and Marshall College poll indicates Pennsylvanians support voting reforms, including requiring county voting officials to contact voters if they find an error on a submitted ballot and requiring photo IDs when voting. An overwhelming 77% of respondents said they favored so-called ballot curing. It’s an issue that has been in the courts many times. Requiring photo IDs when voting has been a divisive issue between Republicans and Democrats for years with Republicans refusing most voting reforms without voter ID and Democrats vehemently opposed, arguing there’s virtually no voter fraud and thus no need for voter ID and that it would keep some voters from being able to vote. The F&M poll showed 73% of those surveyed supported voter ID.
The poll also shows more voters – although not a significant number of voters – are viewing the direction of the state more positively. Thirty-nine percent of respondents say Pennsylvania is heading in the right direction. Thirty-seven percent said the state was heading in the right direction in February. Seventeen percent of registered voters say they are better off financially than last year compared to 15% in February and 11% in October, 2023.
Continuing a trend, 62% said marijuana should be legalized for recreational use in Pennsylvania and most (48%) say it should be sold through a dispensary rather than a state operated cannabis shop (29%).
Berwood Yost, Director of the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College was on The Spark Monday and said President Joe Biden has a slight lead over former President Donald Trump, but third party candidates may have an impact on the presidential race in Pennsylvania, “Something like 90% of registered Democrats say they’re supporting Biden. And it’s about 75% of registered Republicans say they’re supporting Trump. When you add in all the third party candidates, Biden’s support among Democrats drops down to about the same level as Trump among Republicans. So about three quarters, that’s what we see happen. So the number of people who pick a third party candidate or say they don’t know is about 7% among Democrats. When it’s a head to head, it’s more like 15% when you offer the three, or the additional candidates, the third party candidates. And that’s an important finding, right? I mean, I keep trying to tell people, look, getting to the final vote outcome here is going to be like searching for spare change in your sofa. I mean, the the parties are going to need everything they can get. And it’s clear to me that who’s on the ballot as a third party candidate, and how many of them are going to have a significant impact on this race.”
Yost said independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. is polling at about 9% in Pennsylvania.
