Majorities back early voting, voter verification: Gallup

Large majorities of Americans back photo ID laws for voting and rules that allow people to vote early, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll found 84 percent of Americans back having “all voters” give “photo identification at their voting place in order to vote.”

Additionally, 83 percent back having “people who are registering to vote for the first time to provide proof of citizenship,” and 76 percent back “early voting, which gives all voters the chance to cast their ballot prior to Election Day.”

“Majorities of Americans favor a range of election law policies that expand voters’ access to the ballot box, including early voting, automatic voter registration and sending absentee ballot applications to all eligible voters,” Megan Brenan, a Gallup senior editor, said in an article on the poll.

“They also broadly support measures to limit fraud and ensure election integrity, including requiring photo identification to vote and providing proof of citizenship when first registering to vote,” she said.

Important battleground states like Georgia and North Carolina have been breaking first-day voting records as early voting has kicked off in multiple states across the nation. Election Day is now only 12 days away, but many voters are already making their decisions.

Policies like taking people off “voter registration lists if they don’t vote in any elections over a 5-year period” and restricting “the number of drop boxes or locations for returning absentee ballots,” garnered 35 percent and 40 percent support, respectively, according to the Gallup poll.

“The public is much less supportive of two policies that would make it harder to vote, including limiting the number of drop boxes for absentee ballots and purging non-voters from voter registration lists,” Brenan said in the article.

The Gallup poll took place Oct. 1-12 and included 1,023 people with a 4 percentage point margin of sampling error at the 95 percent confidence level.