You hear a lot about how divided the county is these days, but it turns out, there are a few things that most Americans agree on, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. A Pew Research Center survey of over 35-hundred U.S. adults finds that nearly seven out of every ten (69%) believe that voting is the most important thing anyone can do to be a good member of society. Interestingly, this belief is shared by folks on both sides of the political aisle.
The importance of voting ranked a lot higher than other activities respondents said were also important, including getting a COVID vaccine (44%) and making choices to help fight climate change (42%). Unsurprisingly, those two activities had the highest difference in importance among those surveyed between right- and left-leaning people, with three times as many likely Dems as Republicans saying those things are important.
And it seems the people who were surveyed tend to follow through on what they believe. Almost four out of five (79%) of the people who say it’s important to vote showed up to cast their ballots in the 2020 election, while only 43% of the people who think voting is “somewhat important” voted in the last election. People will debate about how voting should take place, but it can only be good that most people tend to agree that voting is an important civic duty.
Source: Pew Research