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Do you think the F&M poll results accurately portrait PA voters thoughts on the Presidential election?
- Absolutely! Team Harris is totally leading!
- Yes, most of these results were what I expected.
- Somewhat, I think these results are way off but only in a few areas.
- No, the majority of these results don't line up with what I'm hearing in my community.
- Heck no! Trump is clearly winning.
- The pool of voters was too small, so I'm unsure.
The state of the economy was a leading concern, the Lancaster-based poll found after analyzing the responses of 890 voters. The poll was released on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Pennsylvania is the largest of seven key battleground states in the presidential race, with 19 Electoral College votes. A total of 270 electoral votes are needed to win the Nov. 5 election. Voting began this week in Pennsylvania with the mailing of paper ballots.
Meanwhile, supporters of the major party candidates are equally enthusiastic about their respective candidates, the poll found. Three in five supporters of each candidate are “very enthusiastic” about supporting them, it said.
Democrat Harris leads among those who regularly vote, 51% to 47%, but Republican Trump has an advantage among less frequent voters, 47% to 46%, according to the poll taken during the week following the Tuesday, Sept. 10 debate between the presidential candidates.
"Turnout is undoubtedly a key variable in this race and the balance of regular and less frequent voters will be determinative," the poll's author, Bernard A. Yost, director of the college's Center for Opinion Research, explained in a newsletter.
The poll finds that concern about the economy (34%), including unemployment and higher gas and utility prices, "continues as the most often mentioned problem facing the state." About half (46%) of respondents say they are “worse off” than a year ago — similar to how respondents have felt for most of the past several years.
Voters think Trump can do a better job than Harris handling the economy and being a commander-in-chief, the poll found (See chart below). However, Harris led Trump in polling figures on such issues as the "concerns of ordinary Americans," abortion and same-sex marriage, "character and good judgment," and being "honest and trustworthy," the poll found.
On the other key issues, such as immigration and foreign policy the poll found the following:
- More of the Commonwealth’s registered voters believe that the United States should be less active in world affairs (37%) than more active (16%), although a plurality (41%) believe it should maintain its current level of activity.
- Pennsylvania’s registered voters are equally divided about providing development and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Approximately one in three voters (32%) believe the United States is providing too much aid and one in three (31%) says the United States is not providing enough aid.
- More of the state’s registered voters believe the United States is providing too much (45%) rather than not enough (20%) economic and military aid to Israel.
- Three in five (61%) of registered voters in Pennsylvania believe that the United States should provide more or the same amount of military support for Ukraine. One in five voters believe the United States should provide less military support (19%) to Ukraine and one in seven (15%) wants all military aid withdrawn.
- A plurality (48%) of registered voters thinks the United States should devote more resources to controlling immigration at the border, while one in four (26%) believe the United States should devote more resources to addressing the issues that cause migration and one in five (21%) believe it should do both.
Vote in our poll at the top of the article to share your thoughts on the F&M results.
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