Democrats Strongly Support Mail-In Voting While Republicans Oppose, Poll Shows

A solid majority of Americans support the use of voter ID and paper ballot backups as measures to ensure election integrity, yet they remain divided along party lines over the issue of voting by mail, according to a survey.

The Pew Research Center poll, released on Feb. 7, found that 84 percent of Democrats believe voting by mail should be available to all voters, while 28 percent of Republicans favor this requirement. On a national average, 57 percent of respondents support this proposal.

Democrats strongly favor automatic voter registration for all eligible citizens and election-day voter registration, with 79 percent and 76 percent support, respectively. In comparison, nearly four in ten Republicans support these measures.

In 2021, another Pew Research survey found that “Democrats are more likely to strongly favor proposals aimed at making it easier to vote; Republicans are more likely to strongly support requiring voters to show photo ID.”

Measures With Strong Bipartisan Support

The survey also found that most U.S. voters support paper ballot backups (82 percent), voter ID requirement (81 percent), early in-person voting (76 percent), making Election Day a national holiday (72 percent), and granting voting rights to convicted felons after completing their sentences (69 percent).

Voter ID requirements and paper ballot backups have the highest support among Republicans. The other three proposals receive higher support among Democrats.

Although a solid majority of Americans support voter ID, with 81 percent in favor, there is partisan division over the policy. Nearly all Republicans (95 percent) favor the measure, while 69 percent of Democrats support voter ID.

Americans are also divided over the policy of removing inactive records from voter registration lists: 60 percent of Republicans favor this policy, compared with 27 percent of Democrats.

Among racial and ethnic groups, black voters are more strongly supportive of early in-person voting (85 percent) and of granting voting rights to convicted felons after they finish their sentences (79 percent) than other groups are.

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