CNN talked to voters about the issue at the top of their minds, how they feel about the two candidates and how they feel about the economy.
Here are the takeaways of initial results from CNN’s national exit poll of voters.
Top issues: More than one-third call democracy their top issue, with about 3 in 10 saying the economy. That’s followed by abortion and immigration, with fewer than 5% calling foreign policy their top issue.
A broad majority of voters backing Vice President Kamala Harris – slightly under 6 in 10 – call democracy their top issue, with about 20% calling abortion their top issue. About half of those voting for former President Donald Trump call the economy their top issue, followed by about 20% calling immigration their biggest issue.
Enthusiastic about their candidates: About three-quarters of voters nationally, including about 8 in 10 Trump voters and two-thirds of Harris voters, say their vote was mainly in support of their candidate, rather than primarily motivated by the desire to cast a vote against their opponent.
Asked to choose which of four qualities – having the ability to lead, caring about people like them, having good judgment or bringing about needed change – is most important, Trump voters overwhelmingly say they prize leadership ability and the capacity to bring change, while Harris voters are more closely split about the qualities that matter most to them.
View of economy: Roughly three-quarters of the electorate holds a negative view of the way things are going in the US today.
Only about one-quarter call themselves enthusiastic or satisfied with the state of the nation, with more than 4 in 10 dissatisfied and roughly 3 in 10 saying they’re angry.
But voters remain generally optimistic, with more than 6 in 10 saying that America’s best days are in the future, and only about one-third that they’re already in the past.
More about the exit polls: CNN’s exit polls for the 2024 general election include interviews with thousands of voters, both those who cast a ballot on Election Day and those who voted early or absentee.
That scope makes them a powerful tool for understanding the demographic profile and political views of voters in this year’s election. And their findings will eventually be weighted against the ultimate benchmark: the results of the elections themselves.
Even so, exit polls are still polls, with margins for error — which means they’re most useful when treated as estimates, rather than precise measurements. That’s particularly true for the earliest exit poll numbers, which haven’t yet been adjusted to match final election results.
Methodology: CNN exit polls are a combination of in-person interviews with Election Day voters and in-person interviews, telephone and online polls measuring the views of early and absentee by-mail voters.
They were conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the National Election Pool. In-person interviews on Election Day were conducted at a random sample of 279 polling locations.
The results also include interviews with early and absentee voters conducted between October 24 and November 2, in person at 27 early voting locations, by phone or online. Results for the full sample of 16,604 respondents have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.
The headline and post were updated with the latest exit poll data.
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