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Poll: Some NYers Still Unsure Who Won The Election

The White House as seen in 2014
Ian Pickus
The White House as seen in 2014

A new poll finds the presidential election is not quite settled yet for some New Yorkers, with one in five saying, three weeks after Election Day, that it’s too early to tell who actually won.

The Siena College poll measures the polarization, even in blue state New York, when it comes to politics. Even though Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the race on November 7, has 306 electoral college votes and six million more popular votes than his opponent, 20% of New Yorkers say it’s too early to tell who won, and 9% say they believe Republican President Donald Trump won reelection. Siena’s Steve Greenberg says part of the reason is that people now get their news from very different sources.

“The president has been saying that ‘he won, he won, he won’, and ‘fraud, fraud, fraud,’” said Greenberg, speaking via Skype. “And a lot of people who support this president, agree with him.”

Still, nearly 70% of New Yorkers believe that Biden won, and Greenberg says that number is likely to rise now that the head of the federal General Services Administration, or GSA, on Monday declared Biden the winner. Emily Murphy’s decision, nearly 4 weeks after Election Day, gives the Biden transition team access to top security briefings, key members of the coronavirus task force, as well as office space and secure computers and phone lines.

The poll also asked New Yorkers about state leaders. It found, that while Governor Andrew Cuomo’s rating has slipped a bit, from 59% to 56%, the majority back the Democrat’s use of special emergency powers to lead the state’s efforts against the pandemic.

Nearly half of New Yorkers think the number one issue for Cuomo and the state legislature in 2021 is battling the coronavirus. And two-thirds say they plan to get a vaccine, when it becomes available.

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau chief for New York State Public Radio, a network of public radio stations in New York state. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.
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