Voters in North Carolina have made their voices clear following Tuesday’s presidential debate, with a new poll suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris’ performance wasn’t enough to sway voters, and may have even pulled some towards Donald Trump.
While numerous mainstream media outlets have declared Harris the victor, a poll from the Trafalgar Group released Saturday suggested that her alleged victory may not have been as strong as previously believed, with Trump edging her out in the key battleground state 48.4% to 46%.
Of the 1,094 participants in the survey, the majority chose Trump when asked who they would vote for “if the election for president were held today.” Only 3.1% of voters said they were still undecided, and 2.4% chose candidates other than Trump or Harris.
66% of the respondents identified as white, and there were 10% more female participants. 35.2% identified as Republican, while 33.1% were Democrat, and the rest stated they were undecided or independent.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 11 and 12, and is similar to another poll from Elon College in August, which had Trump leading Harris 46% to 44%.
“Having been won by Republican presidential candidates for three elections in a row, North Carolina is sometimes called into question as a swing state,” said Professor Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll. “Our data show that North Carolina’s electoral votes remain up for grabs by either party, but winning those votes will involve navigating a divided, complex and engaged electorate.”
The poll also noted that several major events in the last few months, including “the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and Biden’s decision to not seek re-election,” have led 51% of registered voters in the state to feel more interested in voting, something that was true of both parties.
Additionally, only 48% of the poll respondents felt confident about fairness and accuracy in this election, with only 1 in four Republican voters expressing confidence in the national vote count.
“This is a major change from voters’ expectations prior to the 2020 presidential election, when the Elon Poll found that 69% of voters were confident that the election process would be fair and 67% expected that votes would be counted accurately,” the poll noted.
“Fair elections and peaceful transfers of power are key hallmarks of democracy and major drivers behind the historical success and prosperity of democratic societies compared to other systems of government,” Husser said. “That less than half of North Carolina voters are confident in fair vote counts and almost three quarters are concerned about political violence is consistent with barely over a third thinking that democracy will be stronger after 2024.”
“The conundrum is that, despite voters seemingly recognizing this as a problem related to polarization, very few voters report being very willing to compromise on their issues in exchange for less divisiveness,” Husser noted.
FiveThirtyEight’s poll aggregate has been whisker thin between Trump and Harris in the state, with Trump taking a .4% lead as of Sept. 14.
Source: Resistthemainstream
