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Voters consider economy the most important issue in 2020 elections, show CNN exit polls

While 34 percent felt economy was the most important issue, 41 percent said their families were doing financially better than four years ago

More than a third of the voters in this presidential election feels the economy is the most important issue, said the CNN’s exit poll on Tuesday, November 3. Racial inequality was second at 21 percent while the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 230,000 lives in the US, remained third at 18 percent. Eleven percent felt crime and safety was important while that many felt the same about health-care policy. President Donald Trump himself has also been speaking strongly in favor of the economy all these months and vouched for opening up the economy even as health experts and opponents accused him of putting lives in peril in doing so in the middle of the pandemic. 

The exit polls also found that more than 50 percent of the voters felt it was more important to contain the coronavirus than rebuild the economy. However, the experts were in for a real shock when it was said that 48 percent of the voters felt the task of containing the coronavirus was going well, as against 51 percent who felt otherwise. 

Nearly 7 in 10 people said wearing mask was about public health responsibility

Also, 68 percent of the voters said wearing a face mask in public was more about public health responsibility while 30 percent were of the opinion that it was a personal choice. The CNN exit polls also said that while 41 percent of the voters said their families’ financial conditions were better than what it was four years ago, 38 percent said it was about the same. Twenty percent said it was worse. 

What were the voters looking for most in their preferred candidate? To this question, 32 percent said they mainly looked for a strong leader while 24 percent said they wanted someone with a good judgment. Twenty-one percent said they wanted a candidate who ‘cares about people like me’ while 19 percent said they wanted someone who can unite the nation.