Most college students say they will vote in the upcoming general election, according to a new report.
The report released Monday from the Knight Foundation and College Pulse surveyed 4,000 full-time four-year students, and 71 percent said they were “absolutely certain” they will vote.
A majority of students — 70 percent — said they would vote for former Vice President Joe Biden compared with 18 percent who said they would vote for President Donald Trump. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed have a favorable impression of Biden, while 19 percent said the same for Trump.
Democrats are more likely to say they’ll vote at 81 percent, compared with 74 percent of Republicans and 53 percent of independents who said they were certain.
Almost half of respondents said the election “won’t be fair and open,” while 55 percent said it “will not be administered well.” Half say they would have major doubts about the fairness if there were problems at polling places, including broken machines and long lines.
Race was a big factor in support for Biden or Trump. Forty-six percent of white males said they’d vote for Biden compared with 70 percent of white women. Black male and female students at 69 percent and 86 percent respectively said they’d support Biden. Sixty-five percent of Hispanic male and 75 percent of Hispanic female students said the same, while 63 percent of Asian male and 84 percent of Asian female students report supporting Biden.
Sixty-three percent of Democrats said they’d prefer to vote absentee, while 31 percent of Republicans said the same. Overall, 39 percent say they’ll vote in person.
The poll was conducted from Aug. 9-12 with a sample size of 4,000 undergraduate students in four-year programs. The margin of error for undergraduates is 2 percentage points, and the margin of error for sub-demographics ranged from 2 to 5 percentage points.
Biden was leading Trump by an average of 8 percentage points as of Aug. 16, according to FiveThirtyEight. Biden’s pre-convention lead was the second-biggest for a Democratic candidate since 1968 and the biggest since Bill Clinton in 1996.
After the Democratic National Convention, a CBS/YouGov poll with a sample size of 957 voters found Biden is leading Trump, with 52 percent saying they’d for Biden compared with 42 percent for Trump.
