AP VoteCast: Voters split on virus, economy, even football

WASHINGTON — As they chose a leader in a time of turmoil, supporters of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden found little common ground on the top crises facing the nation.

The divide between Republican and Democratic America cut across the economy, public health and racial justice, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of the electorate.

Among the few shared views in the two camps of voters: Trump has changed the way things work in Washington. Most Trump voters say he has changed Washington for the better; most Biden voters say he's changed it for the worse.

Here's a snapshot of who voted and what matters to them, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 133,000 voters and nonvoters nationwide conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS

The differences between Trump and Biden supporters — on the virus, the economy, even on football — are stark.

As U.S. coronavirus cases rise, claiming more than 232,000 lives, a majority of Biden voters — about 6 in 10 — said the pandemic was the most important issue facing the country. And Biden voters overwhelmingly said the federal government should prioritize limiting the spread of the virus — even if that damages the economy.

The two groups did not agree on the state of the economy, either. Trump voters remain adamant that the economy is in good shape: About three-quarters call national economic conditions excellent or good. About 8 in 10 Biden voters call them not so good or poor.

Partisanship even seemed to cloud views on football among voters in many states, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. When the coronavirus threatened the Big Ten's college football season, Trump campaigned on ensuring the games would be played. Not surprisingly, across eight states, voters who approved of the Big Ten playing this year supported Trump over Biden. Those who saw it as a mistake were more likely to back Biden.

LOYAL TO TRUMP

Trump won four years ago with a message of disruption, promising to shake up the Washington establishment, roll back regulations and put America first — and his message still resonates with his supporters. They like what they're seeing.

Trump voters overwhelmingly said their vote was an endorsement of him, not cast in opposition to Biden. And they were more likely than Biden voters to say they agreed with their candidate all or most of the time, 81% versus 74%.

But both candidates' voters expressed worries about Washington corruption, with an overwhelming majority saying they believe corruption would be a "major problem" in their opponent's administration.

THE PANDEMIC'S PERSONAL IMPACT

Although a wide majority of voters said the coronavirus pandemic has affected them personally, there were deep racial and partisan disparities.

About 4 in 10 Black voters and about 3 in 10 Latino voters said they lost a family member or close friend to the virus, while just over 1 in 10 white voters said the same.

Latino and Black voters also were more likely to lose household income because of the pandemic: nearly half of Latino voters and about 4 in 10 Black voters, compared with about a third of white voters.

All these groups of voters fall into Biden's column, meaning his voters were somewhat more likely than Trump voters to say they've felt the impact in at least one of the ways the survey asked about, 73% to 62%.

VOTING

Voters did not stay on the sidelines, with experts predicting total votes will exceed the 139 million cast in 2016. About 101 million people voted ahead of Election Day.

About three-quarters said they've known all along who they were supporting in this election.

Voters were measured in their confidence that the vote count would be accurate — despite Trump seeking to sow doubts about the integrity of the vote count.

RACIAL UNREST

A summer of protests and sometimes-violent clashes over racial inequality in policing exposed sharply divergent views on racism.

An overwhelming majority of Black voters said racism in the U.S. is a "very serious" problem, but fewer than half of white voters said it is.

Nearly two-thirds of Black voters and about 4 in 10 Latino voters said police are too tough on crime. But among white voters, only about a quarter said police are too tough and roughly as many said police are not tough enough.

Those divisions translate into partisan splits. Biden voters almost universally said racism is a serious problem in U.S. society and in policing, including about 7 in 10 who called it "very" serious. A slim majority of Trump voters — who are overwhelming white — called racism a serious problem in U.S. society, and just under half said it was a serious problem in policing.

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