Swing state voters are sharply divided over coronavirus, CNBC/Change Research poll finds

Voters in swing states are sharply divided along partisan lines over the coronavirus pandemic with just under six months to go before Election Day, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll. 

Democrats and Republicans in the key electoral states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin disagree over whether there is likely to be a second wave of Covid-19 cases and who is to blame if there is. 

Republicans were far more likely to say that corporations should be shielded from liability if their customers or employees contract the virus and sue, while Democrats said they were taking more precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding restaurants. 

The survey polled 5,408 likely voters in battleground states from Friday to Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. 

The data sheds new light on the battle between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, which is being waged in the shadow of the worst public health crisis in living memory. 

Some of the data in the survey is good news for the president.

In a hypothetical match-up, Trump holds a narrow, 48%-46% lead over Biden among all the battleground voters surveyed, including a 41%-32% lead among independents. He also leads Biden 51%-40% in who would do a better job handling the economy. The two are in a statistical tie over who would do a better job handling coronavirus.

But the survey results also showed that independents are far more likely than Trump to be concerned about a potential second wave in coronavirus infections and will blame Trump if it does. 

Among both Democrats and independents, the most common word used in responses to the survey was “incompetent.” In contrast, Republicans used words like “good,” “great,” “best,” and “excellent.” 

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/20/voters-divided-over-coronavirus-cnbcchange-research-poll-finds.html