(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/10/2020) With less than a month until Michigan's gubernatorial race, a CBS/YouGov.com poll released Sunday found 0% of likely voters are voting third party and fewer than .5% are undecided.
The margin of the poll has Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at 53% and Republican challenger Tudor DIXON at 47%, but possibly more noteworthy is that among the 1,285 likely voters asked from three online panels on Oct. 3-6, there were so few undecided voters, they barely registered on the crosstabs.
The margin of error for the poll is 3.6%. EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn said all the polls he has seen have had at least 5% in the undecided category and at least a few percentage points in the third-party category so to see 0% in both categories, “It’s befuddling to me."
The poll is showing a much tighter race than recent polls conducted by EPIC-MRA, which Porn is president, and the Glengariff Group.
The CBS/YouGov poll is closer to the polling conducted by The Trafalgar Group.
"I doubt it is that close, given the preponderance of other polling, not just ours," Porn said.
The YouGov poll was made up of three separate panels that were conducted online. Porn said he was unfamiliar with two, one named Cint and the other Dynasta.
"It just seems odd that they would have the whole sample comprised of multiple panels," Porn said. "That seems a little strange to me."
The crosstabs showed four categories of voters where 1% were undecided – independents, moderates, those between 45 and 64 and people with no college degree.
The YouGov poll shows overwhelming support for Whitmer among those 44 and younger. Dixon has a slight edge over Whitmer among white men and independents in the poll.
When asked if the adjective "mainstream" applied to Whitmer, 60% said yes. As for "competent," 57% said yes. For "principled," 54% said yes. Voters were asked if the word "extreme" described Dixon and 55% said yes. When given the word "principled," 51% said yes. She is not seen as independent with 56% saying no, and 52% see her as not competent.
The candidates each are each largely defined by their stance on abortion, with 91% seeing Whitmer protecting abortion and 88% seeing Dixon restricting abortion access.
The approval rating for Whitmer sits at 52%, with her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic sitting at the same rate.
During the COVID-19 pandemic 43% said the policies in Michigan were correct, 43% said they were too strict and 14% said they were too lax.
Most of the people saying the policies were too strict fall under the conservative Republican sections of the poll, with 49% of independents saying they were too strict, but 51% saying they were correct or not strict enough. Moderates were also at 62% saying it was correct or did not go far enough.
The economy, inflation and abortion top the issues of importance, with only 1% saying the economy is not important and 3% saying inflation is not important.
Proposal 3, the abortion constitutional amendment, is represented in the poll with 54% in favor and 38% opposed.
The majority, 51%, said they are expecting the United States to be in a recession next year, with 17% saying it would hold steady. There was 1% who claimed it would boom and 20% that it would slow, but not go into a recession.
The YouGov poll showed 63% of the respondents would like to see abortion legal in either all or most cases, while 37% would like to see abortion illegal in most or all cases.
With the overturn of Roe v. Wade liberal Democrats under 30 were the largest percentage to say they will be more likely to vote this year because of that issue. Conservative Republicans and independents 45 to 64 and above said the decision would not change whether or not they would vote.
Overall 89% of the respondents said they definitely or probably would vote in the midterms and 4% saying it would be unlikely they would vote.
Despite the glut of America First candidates running in the election this year, the CBS poll claims there is a sharp decline in people who are part of the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement.
The poll show 22%, with conservative Republicans making up the majority, of people claim to be part of the MAGA movement. The largest age group, 32%, comes from those 65 and older.
Progressives in the poll were split more evenly, with 31% describing themselves as progressive and 43% not. People under 30 and 30 to 44 were more likely to call themselves progressive.
The overall outlook for the national economy was bad, with 74% answering very or fairly bad, but the outlook for Michigan was closer with 62% saying very bad or fairly bad.
