Florida Exit Polls Indicate Four Times More Conservative and Moderate Voters Than Liberals

Early exit polls conducted in Florida indicated that four times as many conservative or moderate voters cast ballots in the 2020 election than liberals.

The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool and compiled by The New York Times. According to the early exit poll results, about 20 percent of the respondents identified themselves as leaning liberal on political matters, while 43 percent said they tend to lean moderate and 38 percent said they tend to lean conservative.

Each voter polled was also asked whether they identify as a Democrat, independent or Republican. The results of this question were much closer, though voters who identified as Republican still led at 37 percent, with 30 percent of voters telling pollsters they identified as Democrats and another 33 percent identifying as either independents or part of another voting bloc.

Pollsters also asked voters about the issues they identified as most important in the presidential race, the qualities they looked for in picking a candidate and whether they believed President Donald Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would be better at handling the economy and the coronavirus pandemic.

The early exit polling results indicated that Floridians prioritized the economy above racial equality, the pandemic, health care and crime, with 53 percent saying they believed Trump would handle the economy better than Biden. However, Biden held a narrow 1 percent lead over Trump as the candidate whom voters believed would manage the pandemic better, and a majority of voters also told pollsters that they believed containing COVID-19 spread was important to do quickly, even if efforts to do so temporarily impact the economy.

About 33 percent of voters also told pollsters that they preferred a strong leader to one who could unite the country, the latter of which pollsters offered as a quality that only 19 percent of respondents identified as most important to them.

On the issue of the candidates' personalities, 55 percent told pollsters they did not believe Trump had the right temperament to hold the executive office but 55 percent of voters said they believed Biden did. Even so, about 54 percent of respondents said they approved of Trump's leadership during his first term, though the same percentage of voters also said they had an unfavorable opinion of him.

Florida is one of six key swing states that Trump and Biden are battling to win in the race for the presidency. Trump won the state by about 1.2 points in 2016, though state polling averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight ahead of Election Day suggested that Biden had a slim 2.5-point lead over the president.

Newsweek reached out to Edison Research for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.