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F&M poll shows Pennsylvania voters more concerned about crime; Support abortion rights, death penalty, stricter gun laws
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Scott LaMar
Online Survey, Customer Feedback, Service Rate, Voting Concept. Tiny Male and Female Characters with Pencil and Magnifier Filling Digital Form on Huge Laptop Screen. Cartoon People Vector Illustration
Airdate: April 14th, 2023
Pennsylvanians are not feeling good about the state of affairs today and they are very concerned about crime. Those a couple of the findings from the latest Franklin and Marshall College poll just released.
Joining us on The Spark Friday to break down the results and what Pennsylvanians are saying was Berwood A. Yost, Director, Floyd Institute for Public Policy at the Center for Opinion Research, Franklin & Marshall College who said,”I think if I had to summarize sort of the field that the pool presented to me was that voters feel a bit or seem a bit stuck and perhaps pessimistic. Their evaluations of their personal finances and their expectations about the future and their future finances are where they were during the midterms, which was pretty low, pretty poor. And frankly, when we asked them about the performance of a lot of political figures there, the results are just so. So it seems like they’re not truly excited about much at this time. And so, you know, I’m taking a step back and thinking about the big picture that comes from the polling. I think it’s it’s just this general sense of, you know, concern, pessimism, malaise, even that that we seem to see among voters at this moment.”
The poll indicated that crime was identified as the most important issue facing Pennsylvania and that’s up nine percentage points from the last F&M poll. Yost was asked why,”You can’t open a paper today without seeing the concerns that people have about crime and violence. And so I think that’s that’s really what we’re seeing in the poll. About one in five voters told us on or off the top of their heads that crime is the most important problem facing the state, which is, as you pointed out, is a big jump from last fall. I think what’s most interesting about those findings is that the people who say that are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. And I think part of that reflects the fact that urban crime and gun violence particularly has gone up. And so even though urban centers are more likely to be registered Democrats that they’re experiencing in their their everyday lives, these concerns about crime. And I think that’s that’s what we see in the poll.”
The poll showed a majority of Pennsylvania voters support creating more laws to regulate gun ownership 59%-39%.
An issue that a large majority of Pennsylvania support is abortion between legal. 33% said abortion should be legal under any circumstance, 57% agreed that abortion should be legal under certain circumstances and only 8% should abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.
