Presidential race tightening in Pa., poll finds
Also, most voters will be passing on mail-in ballots
The presidential race has tightened slightly in Pennsylvania, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll.
In the latest survey released today, Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 6 percentage points. The poll finds 48 percent of likely voters favor Biden while 42 percent support the Republican president.
Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall Director G. Terry Madonna said in a statement accompanying the poll results that the race has clearly tightened in Pennsylvania — a key battleground state in the presidential election.
But the gap between the two candidates grows slightly when the survey polls registered voters. That survey shows Biden draws support from 49 percent while 40 percent back Trump.
The poll ref lects interviews with 625 registered voters: 296 Democrats, 250 Republicans and 79 independents.
Biden held a sizable advantage
in surveys of Pennsylvania voters throughout the summer but it appears the race is tightening in recent days. An average of Pennsylvania polls compiled by the number crunchers at Real Clear Politics shows Biden with a lead of 3.8 percentage points.
Biden, the former vice president who often touts his deep family roots to the Keystone State, has joked that he earned the nickname “Pennsylvania’s third senator” during his decades representing Delaware in the Senate.
T r u mp na r rowly won Pennsylvania in 2016, an upset victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. His ability to flip that state is widely credited with securing his Electoral College success.
Voter preferences
Biden holds a clear advantage over Trump on his ability to handle the coronavirus pandemic, his ability to manage issues related to race and his understanding of the concerns facing ordinary Americans.
And he is notably favored when it comes to the attributes that voters are looking for in a president, particularly when it comes to character and honesty.
But Trump continues to have an edge when it comes to economic matters.
Madonna said partisanship and ideology are primary drivers of presidential preference, with Biden holding slightly larger portions of Democrats than Trump holds among Republicans.
He added that differences in preference are also associated with geography, with counties that have large urban centers favoring Biden and more rural counties backing Trump.
Strong interest
Almost three of four registered voters — 71 percent — said they were very interested in the election, a similar level of interest as seen in a poll at this time four years ago.
Madonna said voter interest is related to political party and ideology. At the moment, similar proportions of Democrats and Republicans say they are very interested.
And most of those voters say they will be heading to the polls to cast their ballots in November rather than choosing to vote by mail .
About 60 percent say they intend to cast their ballot in person, compared with just 34 percent who plan to vote by mail. Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than vote in person while more Republicans expect to vote in person vote rather than by mail.
The survey shows that most (59 percent) of the state’s registered voters are confident that the count will be accurate if voting by mail is widely used but only one in three Republicans are confident those counts will be accurate compared to most Democrats (83 percent) and independents (51 percent).
The survey was conducted between Sept. 14 and Sunday. The margin of error is 6.5 percentage points for registered voters. The Reading Eagle is a media partner of the poll.