Half of Americans would vote by mail: poll

About half of Americans said they would vote by mail if the option was available, with a firm majority of Democrats preferring the option, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

Fifty percent of respondents said that if they had an opportunity to vote by mail, they would be more likely to do so than vote in person, compared to 38 percent who said they would prefer to vote in person. Ten percent were unsure.

Among Democrats, 61 percent said they would prefer to mail in their ballots compared to 35 percent who said they would prefer to vote in person. On the Republican side, 56 percent preferred in-person voting, while 42 percent said they would prefer to vote by mail. Fifty-three percent of independents said they would rather vote by mail, compared to 38 percent who would vote in person and 6 percent who were unsure.

Those who most wanted to vote by mail included white women with a college degree at 64 percent, whites with a college degree in general at 62 percent, and those living in Western states, where numerous states have allowed voting by mail for years, with 62 percent.

Groups most likely to want to vote in person included Republicans in general at 56 percent, residents of Southern states at 45 percent, and both white women without college degrees and people 45 or older, at 44 percent. 

President Trump has been a vocal opponent of voting by mail despite doing it himself in the Florida Republican primary earlier this year. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump threatened to cut off federal funding to Michigan after its Democratic secretary of state said every voter will receive applications for absentee ballots in the mail.  

The Marist Poll surveyed 1,007 adults via landline and cell phone between May 12 and May 17. The survey has a 3.6-point margin of error.