The latest round of swing-state polling shows the presidential race is far too close to call with no clear advantage for Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump in any of the seven battleground states.
Divisions run deep between Democrats and Republicans. Just 30% of Republican voters in New Jersey believe President Joe Biden was rightfully elected in 2020. That’s according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll out Monday in partnership with NJ Advance Media. The poll says nearly 1 in 5 voters would support legal challenges to the outcome this election cycle, though the majority, 81%, say they have faith in the legitimacy of the electoral process whether looking back on 2020 or looking ahead.
“Much like voters in other states, New Jersey voters trust the Garden State much more when it comes to mail-in ballots or in-person voting,” said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling. “In terms of the process going as voters intend, they are less likely to trust other states and what this process may look like in other states. All of this kind of goes hand in hand with New Jerseyans are certainly worried about the future of democracy, and they’re of course worried that there could be political violence after the election.”
And while the polls won’t tell us who will win, they do paint a clear picture of what’s been driving the electorate this election cycle.
“It really is a tale of two very different electorates who live in their own worlds, as it were. I mean, one of the things I keep trying to point out to people is when we ask about issues that are important, Democrats and Republicans, or more specifically, let’s talk about Harris and Trump supporters, talk in a very different language,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
“You would think they were talking about two different countries when we asked them what threats they feel, what are the key things that they want. Obviously, it’s immigration, crime, those are the big issues on the Trump side,” said Murray. “On the Harris side, it’s things like your fundamental rights and freedoms and the future of democracy.”
“They’re looking at two very different countries and the polling has been telling us that all along,” Murray said. “Which is the reason why this race has been so stable in its uncertainty, because they have just dug in and in very different views of what this election means and what’s going on in the country right now.”
