Poll: 2/3 of Terry McAuliffe Voters Say Photo ID Should Be Required to Vote

A majority of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s supporters believe photo IDs should be required to vote, according to a poll conducted Tuesday — the night of Virginia’s gubernatorial election, where Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated his Democrat opponent.

In the survey, Rasmussen found 81 percent of Virginians believe that a photo ID should be required for voting. While an astounding majority of Glenn Youngkin’s supporters — 94 percent — believe photo IDs should be required to vote, 66 percent of McAuliffe’s voters agree, suggesting that basic photo ID requirements are widely popular among the American electorate, even as corporate media routinely depict them as racist.

The survey also identified the top issues among Virginia voters. For Youngkin’s voters, the top issues were education, immigration, inflation, and the economy. Meanwhile, McAuliffe’s supporters identified the top issues as COVID, education, inflation, and the economy. Overall, 52 percent of voters said the economy is getting “worse.”

While some respondents view the Virginia race, in which Youngkin emerged victorious, as a referendum on President Joe Biden’s policies, even more in the poll consider it a win for former President Donald Trump’s America First policies. Nearly half of Virginia voters — 49 percent — believe it is possible to support Trump’s policies without supporting the former president, although 39 percent disagree. 

Nearly three-quarters of Youngkin’s supporters said it is possible to support those policies without supporting Trump, but a majority of McAuliffe’s supporters disagree. 

Additional findings, per Rasmussen:

• 57% of Virginia voters believe high school students should be required to use the bathroom of their biological gender while 33% disagree. 80% of Younkin [sic] voters believe students should be required to follow their biological gender. By a 54% to 34% margin, McAuliffe voters believe students should be allowed to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.
• 83% of Virginia voters agree that “America was founded on the ideals of freedom, equality, and self-governance. Our nation has a tragic history of racial injustice, but we have made and continue to make progress.” That includes 84% of Youngkin voters and 82% of McAuliffe voters.
• Just 53% believe Virginia’s public schools are teaching students that America was founded on the ideals of freedom and equality. 29% believe students are being taught that America was founded upon the ideas of racism and white supremacy.

Youngkin secured a victory in the Old Dominion State after surging in the polls in the final weeks of the race, besting the defeated Democrat governor 50.7 percent to 48.6 percent — a difference of over 71,000 votes. 

Rasmussen’s survey showed that most voters — 77 percent — were “confident that the votes would be accurately counted and the correct winner declared.” A majority of Youngkin’s and McAuliffe’s voters, 63 percent and 92 percent respectively, expressed the same confidence. 

The survey, taken November 2 among 500 Virginia voters, has a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.