PPP’s newest Georgia poll continues to find a toss up for President in the state. Joe Biden leads Donald Trump 47-46, thanks to a 26 point advantage with independents at 56-30. The numbers exemplify the generational change occurring in the Georgia electorate- while Trump leads 56-41 with voters over 65, Biden is up 50-46 with those between 46 and 65 and has a 49-40 advantage with those under the age of 45. Trump continues to be unpopular, with only 46% of voters approving of the job he’s doing to 52% who disapprove.
Brian Kemp’s approval numbers are worse than Trump’s. Just 40% approve of the job he’s doing to 49% who disapprove. His numbers when it comes specifically to how he’s handled the coronavirus- 41% approve, 51% disapprove- are nearly identical to his overall approval numbers, indicating that his unpopular handling of the virus is dominating overall voter perceptions of his work. 58% of voters believe Kemp deserves most (30%) or some (28%) of the blame for the state’s coronavirus situation.
42% of voters agree with Kemp’s decision to allow schools to open during the pandemic, to 48% opposed. 70% of voters say that if schools are going to be open, Kemp should require students to wear masks, to only 23% disagree. There’s bipartisan consensus on that issue- Democrats (95/1) and independents (73/19) both overwhelmingly support requiring masks in schools and Republicans (45/44) do by a narrow spread as well. There’s also strong agreement on requiring wearing masks more broadly- 66% of voters think they should be required in public.
Georgians are pretty closely divided three ways in how they plan to vote this fall. 35% say they will vote early in person, 30% say they will vote by mail, and 27% say they will vote in person on election day. There are massive differences in who people are planning to vote for depending on how they plan to cast their ballot- Trump leads 75/20 among those who plan to vote on election day, while Biden leads 72/17 among those who plan to vote by mail. People who plan to early vote in person are more closely divided, with 53% going for Trump and 45% for Biden. A plurality of black voters (45%) plan to cast their ballots by mail compared to 18% of white voters.
PPP interviewed 782 Georgia voters on August 24th and 25th on behalf of Fair Fight Action. The survey’s margin of error is +/-3.5%. Full results here