Over two-thirds of nonvoters in the 2020 election think the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new poll.
The New York Times/Siena College poll released Wednesday asked 1,226 registered voters about the upcoming election. Of those polled, 19% did not vote in 2020, though 11% of the total polled were not registered to vote that year. As one might expect, the demographics of those who didn’t vote skews young — 55% of nonvoters are under 30.
Overall 67% of people said the country was headed in the wrong direction. But those who voted for former President Donald Trump were the vast majority, with 91% agreeing. A large number of nonvoters, 68%, also agreed. While less than half of Democrats also thought America was on the wrong track, it was a relatively high 46%.
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When looking at the demographics of those who didn’t vote in 2020, 48% identified as independent, compared to only 16% who said they were Democrat, and 18% who were Republican. Another 37% of those who didn’t vote didn’t know who they were going to vote for this year. The nonvoters did, however, generally aspire to vote in this election, with only 37% saying it was unlikely they’d vote this November.
Trump is popular among this demographic. Nearly half, 49%, of those who said they didn’t vote in 2020 said they’d vote for the former president if the election were held today, compared to only 30% who’d go for Biden.
The poll was conducted by phone between June 20-25, and has a 3% margin of error.
The last presidential election had the highest voter turnout in over a century, with 67% of eligible voters actually voting, according to NPR. But that still means 80 million who could have voted didn’t. Of those people, 29% weren’t registered and 23% said they weren’t interested in politics.
When it comes to those who do care about politics but still didn’t vote, 43% (20% overall) said they didn’t like either candidate, while 34% (16% of the total) said voting wouldn’t make a difference, and 21% (10% total) were undecided, according to an NPR/Medill School of Journalism poll.
Though there have been concerns about voter suppression, NPR found that 75% of those who didn’t vote thought it was an easy process. The poll found that some voters didn’t align with the parties — one of those polled said she couldn’t vote Democrat because she’s against abortion, but disagreed with Republicans’ anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ policies.
But the most common reason appeared to be apathy or fatalism — though the latter was common among voters and nonvoters alike.
“I feel like I’ve lost a lot of trust in our government, because even with a pandemic, they tell us one thing, and then a day later, they tell us another thing,” ICU nurse Megan O’Malley told pollsters. O’Malley said she did not vote in 2020.
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