Joe Biden gets nine-point poll boost in must-win Pennsylvania hours ahead of first debate as new survey shows just 14% of voters haven’t decided who they’re voting for yet
Just hours before the first presidential debate, two polls released Tuesday show Joe Biden with a considerable nine-point lead against Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania as a vast majority of nationwide voters say debate performances won’t change their minds about who they’re voting for.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll taken September 21-26 shows that 54 per cent of likely voters in the swing state plan to cast their ballot for the Democratic nominee compared to the 45 per cent who say they will vote for the president.
At the same time, a national survey from Politico/Morning Consult released Tuesday shows the three upcoming debates between the two presidential candidates won’t make much of a difference to voters.
A whopping 86 per cent of voters have already made up their mind about who they’re voting for on November 3, while only 14 per cent say they could change their minds before casting their ballots.
The Keystone state’s western neighbor will hold the first of three presidential debates at 9:00 p.m. Both candidates are heading to Cleveland, Ohio Tuesday as they plan to discuss and debate their records, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, race and violence and election integrity with moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.
A new poll released just hours before the first presidential debate shows Joe Biden has a nine-point lead against Donald Trump in the battleground of Pennsylvania, which the president won by less than 1 per cent in 2016
The candidates will face-off in their first of three debates on Tuesday evening in Cleveland, Ohio, as another poll released Tuesday shows only 14 per cent of voters feel they could be swayed by respective candidates' performances
Trump will also face questions over a recent New York Times report claiming the billionaire president only paid $750 in federal taxes.
Among registered voters in Pennsylvania, 53 per cent approve of Trump’s management of the economy while 57 per cent disapprove of his handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. Overall, the president’s approval rating in the state is 43 per cent positive and 55 per cent negative.
In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by a very slim margin. He earned 48.2 per cent of the vote compared to Hillary Clinton’s 47.5 per cent – only a 0.7 per cent difference that won Trump 20 Electoral College votes.
Some other close-call swing states Trump won in 2016 included Michigan, where he was the victor by only 0.3 per cent and Wisconsin where he won by 0.7 per cent.
Of the three Rust Belt states that were integral to deciding the 2016 election, Pennsylvania is the most populous. If Trump were to lose all three, he would give up 46 Electoral College votes.
In the previous six elections before 2016, all three states voted for Democratic presidential nominees before shifting to Trump last time around.
The Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted September 25-27 shows that nearly all of the 1,991 registered voters polled are not counting on the debates to sway their opinion when they vote for president.
Among those already planning to vote for Biden, 93 per cent say they won’t change their mind before Election Day. And of Trump voters, nearly 9 in 10 – or 89 per cent – say they have made up their minds.
Trump and Biden will face off a total of two more times before Election Night.
The second debate will be held October 15 in Miami, Florida and will be moderated by C-SPAN’s Steve Scully as the candidates participate in a town hall style event. And the third and final debate will take place in Nashville, Tennessee on October 22 and be moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker.
Many Americans have already completed early voting as mass mail-in ballots have become the norm in several states as coronavirus concerns are still rocking the nation.
Trump has railed against the remote-voting measure, claiming voters should be required to request an absentee ballot rather than it be sent to them automatically. He laments this will increase chances of voter fraud and disproportionately benefit Biden and the Democrats.
Of the 808 adults surveyed in Pennsylvania, 65 per cent say they plan to vote in-person on Election Day. A bit more than 3 in 10, however, plan to cast their ballot early by mail-in or at an in-person voting site. This year, any voter in the state can request a mail-in ballot without an excuse due to health worries.
In 2016, only 4 per cent of voters in Pennsylvania participated in voting by absentee ballot.
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