17 October 2020
Data: Axios/Ipsos poll; Note: ±2.6% margin of error; Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios
Fears that armed militia, police or COVID-19 await them at the polls are disproportionately shaping how Americans of color think about in-person voting, according to an Ipsos poll for Axios.
Why it matters: Participation by voters of color could decide whether President Trump or Joe Biden wins, and whether Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress.
- 82% of white Americans, 74% of Black Americans, 66% of Asian Americans and 53% of Hispanic Americans say they're either certain to vote or have already voted, with a little more than two weeks left in the election.
The big picture: This survey of U.S. adults shows the lasting effects of voter suppression and disenfranchisement — and why people of color crave expansions of mail-in ballots, same-day registration and restoration of voting rights.
- 32% of Black respondents and 30% of Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans — but only one in five white respondents — are concerned about physical violence or armed militias at their voting locations.
- One third of Black respondents, 29% of Asian Americans and 24% of Hispanic Americans worry the government could use in-person voting to serve warrants or arrest people — compared with just 14% of white respondents.
- 29% of Black Americans said they're "very concerned" about voter suppression in their home states — roughly twice the rate of the other racial and ethnic groups.
By the numbers: Roughly four in 10 non-white respondents, but just three in 10 white respondents, are concerned about long wait times at the polls.
- Black Americans are the most concerned (57%) about whether their own votes will be counted.
- There's also a big difference in how voters perceive the threat of the coronavirus. 61% of Asian Americans, 59% of Black Americans and 51% of Hispanic respondents are concerned about getting coronavirus if they vote in person — compared with 39% of white respondents.
Between the lines: In reality, the "overall" views of white Americans gloss over big differences between two groups: white Republicans and white Democrats.
- White Democrats are much more likely to align with people of color on many of the issues examined in the survey — from fears of clashes at the polls to favoring elections by national popular vote to restoring felons' voting rights.
- There's a 20-percentage point gap between the share of white Democrats and white Republicans who say they're either "very" or "somewhat" concerned about voter suppression in their state.
What we're watching: Most Black respondents (82%), Hispanic Americans (77%), Asian Americans (63%) and white respondents (59%) say the president should be elected nationally by popular vote rather than by the Electoral College.
- Two-thirds of all Americans say election day should be a national holiday.
- About eight in 10 voters overall support requiring photo ID to vote in person, slightly less — 73%— for Black respondents.
- Majorities of Black Americans (81%), white Americans (70%), Hispanic respondents (64%) and Asian Americans (63%) support restoring voting rights to convicted felons who have served their time.
- Only Black Americans (52%) favor allowing convicted felons who are still in prison to vote.
Methodology: This Axios/Ipsos Race and Voting Poll was conducted Oct.8–15, 2020, by Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 2,052 general population adults age 18 or older.
- The margin of sampling error is ± 2.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
- The study was conducted in both English and Spanish.
- The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, household income, race/ethnicity by gender, race/ethnicity by age, race/ethnicity by education, race/ethnicity by region, and party identification.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.