Majority of In-Person Voters Plan on Casting for Republicans, Poll Suggests

A new poll found that a majority of voters that plan to cast their ballot in person are siding with Republican candidates.

The poll, which was conducted by The Economist/YouGov shows that among respondents who plan to vote in person on election day, 54 percent said they will vote for the Republican candidate in their district, while 37 percent said they'd vote for the Democratic candidate.

The poll's findings come ahead of the upcoming midterm elections where voters will decide on a number of different candidates in the Senate and House of Representatives.

For other methods of voting, the poll found that among those who plan to vote in person before election day, 45 percent said they'd side with the Republican candidate and 47 percent said they plan to vote for the Democratic candidate.

According to the poll, 56 percent of respondents that said they plan to vote by mail or absentee ballot said they'd side with the Democratic candidate in their respective district, while 33 percent said they will choose the Republican candidate.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor in the political science department at the University of Houston told Newsweek, said that the poll's findings are "partly for political reasons."

"Mail voting has been largely poisoned by former President Trump and other Republicans who see that as an avenue for vote fraud," Rottinghaus told Newsweek.

During the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald Trump and a number of other Republicans criticized the process of mail-in voting. During a press conference in April 2020, Trump said, "I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting."

"I think people should vote with Voter ID. I think Voter ID is very important, and the reason they don't want Voter ID is because they tend to cheat," Trump added at the time.

Despite past criticism from Republicans of mail-in voting, the National Conference of State Legislatures states that "Eight states conduct elections entirely by mail (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington), which means voters do not need to request a ballot, and instead automatically receive one."

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 27 other states and Washington D.C., offer "no excuse" absentee voting "which means that any voter can request and cast an absentee/mail ballot, no excuse or reason necessary."

The poll from The Economist/YouGov also found that more Republican voters overall plan to vote in person on election day. According to the poll, 48 percent of respondents that identify as Republican said they plan to vote in person, compared to 30 percent of Democratic voters who said the same.

The Economist/YouGov poll surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults from October 8 to October 11 and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Newsweek reached out to Kathy Frankovic, a member of the survey team that conducted the poll for comment.