With the final hour of voting underway in the state’s recall election, CNN exit poll shows how Californians feel about Newsom’s Covid policies
Voters have mixed outlooks on the pandemic’s course in California, with about 4 in 10 saying the situation is getting better, 3 in 10 that it remains about the same, and just under one-quarter that it’s worsening.
Under half of the electorate, about 45%, say Newsom’s policies on the pandemic have been about right, with about one-third calling his policies too strict and the remainder saying they’re not strict enough.
There’s broad support for Covid-19 mitigation measures, with more than 6 in 10 saying that getting vaccinated is more of a public health responsibility than it is a personal choice. Most California Republicans see vaccination as a personal choice, while most Democrats see it as a public health responsibility.
Californians are close to evenly split on the current state of California’s economy, with about half calling it good or excellent, and the rest calling it not so good or poor. Voters take a more negative view about the costs of living in their own part of California, with around 6 in 10 saying that those costs are at least somewhat unmanageable.
Women make up slightly more than half the electorate in the California recall, just as they did in the 2020 presidential election and the 2018 gubernatorial race. White majorities narrowly make up the majority of the electorate, the exit poll data finds, with the remainder people of color. In 2020 exit polling, about half the electorate was White; in 2018, it was 63%.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
