Dina Mahmoud (London)
Less than 6 months before Americans head to the polls to choose the forty-seventh president of their country, a recent opinion poll revealed a decline in popular interest in the United States in the expected confrontation between the candidates, Democratic Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump.
According to the poll, the percentage of registered American voters who said that they have a high level of interest in the upcoming electoral process reached its lowest rate in about 20 years, having reached only 64% at this stage of the presidential elections, compared to the percentages recorded before previous similar polling operations. Which amounted to 77% in 2020, 69% in 2016, in addition to 67% in 2012, and 74% in 2008.
The poll showed a disparity in the level of interest in the November 5 confrontation between potential Republican voters and their Democratic counterparts, as well as independents.
While 70% of those who say they are “Republicans” confirmed that they have a great interest in the upcoming presidential elections, this percentage declines to 65% among “Democrats,” and reaches no more than 48% among independent voters.
Political and analytical circles in Washington attributed the indifference shown by Americans to the upcoming presidential race to the negative opinions expressed by many of them regarding Democratic President Biden and his predecessor and Republican rival Trump, especially since the expected competition between them is nothing but a repetition of the confrontation that the two men fought before. Only 4 years.
In this context, Jeff Horwich, a “democratic” opinion poll expert, said that the current atmosphere suggests that Americans, who do not agree on many matters at the present time, are almost unified now, except in abstaining from the upcoming elections and showing indifference to them. .
At a time when the poll, conducted by the American television network NBC News throughout the United States, revealed that 52% of voters have negative opinions towards Biden, and that this percentage increases by one percentage point with regard to those who expressed their dissatisfaction with Trump, The same network quoted former voters who said that they did not intend to vote for either man at all.
Some of those who voted for the Democratic candidate in the 2020 elections said that they believe that he did not do much as president, but at the same time they stressed that this vision will not push them to stand next to the Republican billionaire, at a time when a part of those who were inclined 4 years ago to support Trump expressed… Their annoyance with both candidates.
In statements published by NBC News on its website, experts and analysts considered that the level of public interest among Americans in the presidential elections has, throughout the ages, been a weighty prior indicator that indicates the expected turnout rate at polling stations.
They stressed that various indicators indicate that this percentage will be lower than that recorded in the 2020 elections, although it is still relatively early to make accurate predictions on this level.
The survey revealed that files such as inflation, high costs of living, immigration, and the situation on the southern border with Mexico top the list of issues that Americans care about before the November confrontation, followed by potential threats to democracy in the country, then unemployment, the economy, abortion, and finally the state of the health care system.
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