A majority of voters, regardless of political party, said in a new poll that they favor state-mandated masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Key results in the Politico/Morning Consult survey:
- 53% of registered voters are in favor of states requiring masks to be worn and violators being threatened with fines and/or jail time.
- 86% of Democrats, 68% of independents, and 58% of Republicans are in favor of mandatory masks.
"With public health officials putting renewed emphasis on mask-wearing to combat the coronavirus, nearly three-quarters of voters — including over half of Republicans — would support their state instituting a mandatory mask order for public spaces, even if not wearing a mask could result in a fine or jail time," said Kyle Dropp, the co-founder and chief research officer at Morning Consult.
An increasing number of states are requiring people to wear masks when they're out in public as the number of COVID-19 cases explodes in many parts of the country. More than 4 million Americans have gotten sick and around 145,000 have died.
The online poll was conducted from July 17-19 among 1,991 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.