In the wake of the Trump-fueled riot on Capitol Hill and the promotion of legal theories to prevent Congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, lawmakers in both chambers have moved to review the voter count process. to remove uncertainty about how Electoral College votes are counted.
The Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday proposed bipartisan legislation that clarifies that voters must abide by state laws, formalizes the role of the vice president in certifying elections and raises the threshold for objecting to results to one. fifth of Congress.
This committee meeting follows the successful passage last week of the House version of similar legislation, with a one-third objection threshold.
Currently, only one member of the House of Representatives and one member of the Senate can force an objection vote on election results during the certification process.
The Senate is expected to broadly pass its version of the bill, after the minority leader Mitch McConnell announced his support for the measure, which already had enough Republican co-sponsors to overcome a filibuster.
Voter count reforms are a priority for Congress ahead of the 2024 presidential election and are expected to move through a conference committee to Biden’s office before the end of the year.
In the poll, there was no clear consensus among respondents on how to make it harder to challenge election results. About a third of voters in the poll said they had no opinion on changing the objection threshold, and a quarter of voters said the current standard should remain the same.
Support for changing the voter count law also garnered bipartisan and independent support in the polls. A majority of Democrats both argued that it was harder for Congress and state governments to overturn election results, at 66% and 65%, respectively.
More than 50% of independents argued that it was harder for state governments to overrule the results, and 45% supported it when it came to Congress. Support among Republican voters was lower: 41% for state governments and 42% for Congress.
The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted September 23-25 among 2,005 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
In other results, the poll also found that Biden’s approval rating fell to just 41%, with 56% disapproval. That’s down from 46% in last week’s poll – which marked Biden’s highest point in 2022.
A plurality of voters also did not approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, jobs, health care, immigration, climate change and a host of other policy areas studied in the poll.
The economy was the top issue among 44% of voters (the highest of any issue in the poll) and 61% disapproved of Biden’s handling of the economy.
Two-thirds of those polled said they don’t think Biden should run for president again in 2024. If Biden didn’t run, Vice President Kamala Harris was the frontrunner on a list of 12 potential candidates in the Democratic primaries, with 26% support among Democrats. Democratic-leaning voters and independents. In second place is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, with 13% support. At least a quarter of Democrats were undecided.
About the same number of respondents, more than 60%, said former President Donald Trump should also not run again.
A majority of voters said they thought Trump did not conduct his business honestly before his presidency, during his presidency or after his presidency – more than 50% in each case. The poll was conducted in the days after New York State Attorney General Tish James announced charges against Trump and three of his adult children in a civil investigation into his trade relations. This investigation is one of several investigations into the former president that have preceded in several jurisdictions across the country.
Less than eight weeks before the midterm elections, Democrats have shown a slight advantage over Republicans in congressional races, even with Biden’s low approval rating and concerns about the economy.
Forty-five percent of voters said they would vote for a Democrat in Congress if the election were held today, compared to 43 percent who preferred a Republican nominee, according to the poll. In last week’s poll, Democrats had a 5-point lead, 47% to 42%.
Democrats garnered a plurality of support among voters under 45, women and those with incomes both above $100,000 and below $50,000 a year. Republicans did better with voters 45 and older and with Christian voters.
Morning Consult is a global data intelligence company, providing insight into what people are thinking in real time by surveying tens of thousands of people around the world every day.
More details on the survey and its methodology can be found in these two documents: Toplines | Crosstabs
