By Lamin Njie, US Elections virtual reporting tour participant
American voters remain hugely split over President Donald Trump and Joe Biden as they continue to cast their vote early in an election that has proved increasingly hard to call.
While elections in a country are defined by many events, American voters are largely driven by issues that matter most to them and they tend to align themselves with the candidate they think best has solutions to those things that concern them.
“I think for me civil rights is part of the issues, top there on the list,” Evan Lis of Arizona (seen in the picture), said.
“Definitely Trump is pro-America, he likes the standards of loyalty and patriotism. I know he’s obnoxious but I don’t like the democratic issues at all,” Blaze Carlson, also from Arizona, a state that has proven to be a battleground state in this year’s election, said.
Foreign policy is an important issue in America and the issue of terrorism has been an important foreign policy issue for the country in the last decade; the recent knife attacks in France has seen Donald Trump last Thursday in Florida claim ‘horrifying terror attacks’ will be carried out in cities across the US if Joe Biden is elected into the White House.
But according to Dr Doug Schwartz, associate vice president and director of the Quinnipiac University poll, foreign policy is not the most important to American voters.
“Traditionally, foreign policy is not a top issue for voters. It’s usually we speak of more of the bread-and-butter issues or the pocketbook issues as being the most important things that affect people’s daily lives.
“The economy is usually a major issue in U.S. Presidential elections. This time around, I would add the COVID-19 pandemic being a major issue in the election. Simply because it affects people so directly in their daily lives and has had a big impact on the economy. That is something that is affecting the U.S. election,” Dr Schwartz who is responsible for Quinnipiac University poll’s methodology and all aspects of the survey process said.
