Sine Institute Poll: Young Voters Uneasy About Election

(Dreamstime)

Younger voters are saying they’re “nervous” and “scared” about the upcoming election, according to a new poll from American University’s Sine Institute and Generation Lab.

The poll comes as young voters, women in particular, are being seen as a key voting demographic for Democrat nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign, while GOP nominee Donald Trump is courting the so-called “bro” vote, especially young men who do not have college degrees, Axios reported Tuesday.

According to the poll, 32% of voters ages 18-34 said they were nervous and scared about the upcoming election, and said the economy is a key issue in how they’ll decide to vote.

Meanwhile, 55% of the registered voters polled said they’d vote for Harris; 24% for Trump; and 11% for a third-party candidate; 10% said they are still undecided, but said they’d vote for Harris if they had to choose a candidate.

Harris’ numbers are close to Hillary Clinton’s in 2016 and President Joe Biden’s in 2020 among young voters, with Trump’s numbers lagging behind those in the past two elections.

In Pew’s polling in 2016, Clinton came out ahead of Trump by 58% to 28% among voters 18-29. Four years later, Biden came out ahead of Trump in the polls among young voters by 59% to 35%.

The Sine Institute did not conduct the same polls in the 2016 and 2020 races.

The current poll involved 1,214 online interviews with adults ages 18-34, including oversamples of Black, Hispanic, and LBGTQ+ voters, conducted between July 29 and Aug. 9.