May 20, 2021
Contact: Cory Combs, Senior Communications Manager
ccombs@issueoneaction.org, p: 202-204-8553
New Arizona poll finds near-universal support for sweeping democracy reforms across the political spectrum
Washington, DC – May 20, 2021 – New polling in Arizona released today by Issue One Action shows overwhelming bipartisan support for sweeping reforms that would strengthen our democracy, bolster our elections, and protect American’s freedom to vote.
Across the political spectrum, there is overwhelming support among Arizona voters for a comprehensive package of reforms that would reduce political corruption, prevent special interests from buying elections, strengthen ethics laws, and protect voting rights. The poll also showed that Arizonans would rather see Congress focus on reducing political corruption and ensuring elections are fair and accurate than on creating jobs or rebuilding infrastructure.
Sixty-eight percent believe it is extremely important for Congress to protect the freedom to vote, followed closely by reducing political corruption (65%) and ensuring that elections are fair and accurate (65%). Creating jobs (46%), lowering healthcare costs (37%), rebuilding the country’s infrastructure (36%), and raising the minimum wage to $15 (20%) rank lower among Arizonans.
The poll, conducted by ALG Research and The Tyson Group on behalf of Issue One Action, found that 88% of Arizonans support sweeping reform, including 69% who support it strongly. Eighty-one percent of Donald Trump support such a proposal, along with 95% of voters who supported Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
According to the poll, a majority of Arizona voters also support reforming the filibuster to pass legislation to reduce political corruption. Fifty-six percent favor either eliminating the filibuster (27%) or reforming it to pass legislation to reduce political corruption (29%). Independents also support reforming the filibuster for this purpose (53% total), as do most white (56%) and Latino voters (60%).
“People are tired of partisan politics getting in the way of fixing our broken political system,” said Issue One Action Founder and CEO Nick Penniman. “Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike agree that we need to be actively repairing our democracy right now, not hoping it magically fixes itself. These proposals — limiting the potential for corruption, protecting voting rights, ensuring safe and fair elections — all have a history of bipartisan support. These are common-sense steps Congress can take now, and congressional action is long overdue.”
While these proposals enjoy strong bipartisan support when they take the form of one, sweeping bill, voters also widely support specific components:
96% support providing more transparency into lobbyist fundraising and putting more limits on their power in Washington.
92% support making nearly all political contributions fully transparent, including dark money contributions and contributions to super PACs.
91% support strengthening election security and accuracy by ensuring all votes are recorded on paper ballots that can be accurately recounted.
90% support cracking down on efforts to restrict voting by increasing criminal penalties for voter intimidation and for false or misleading information intended to prevent people from voting.
88% support ending partisan gerrymandering - to ensure congressional districts are drawn fairly and to stop politicians from choosing their voters by drawing their own district lines.
73% support guaranteeing voters in every state the right to vote early and the right to vote by mail.
“In today’s climate, it’s rare to see such broad bipartisan support for any policy proposals,” said Kevin Akins from ALG Research. “Voters across the political spectrum in Arizona, and across the country, want their elected representatives in Congress to act now to pass comprehensive democracy reforms, and by an 8:1 margin are more likely to vote for a member of Congress who supports this proposal. The public support for these reforms is extraordinary.”
“Regardless of political affiliation, we found that these are extremely popular proposals,” said Ryan Tyson from The Tyson Group. “There’s almost uniform support across the board. Ninety-six percent of Democrats would support a sweeping reforms package, and so would 85% of Republicans and 84% of independents. The message these voters are sending to Congress is clear: this is something both parties can agree on.”
Pollster overview memo here; full poll results are available here.
ALG Research and the Tyson Group conducted N=600 interviews with likely November 2022 general election voters in Arizona. Bilingual interviews were conducted between May 1-5, 2021, with 76% of interviews completed via cell phone, including both live interviews and SMS texts to a web survey. Respondents were selected at random, with interviews apportioned geographically based on past voter turnout. Expected margin of sampling error is ±4.0% with a 95% confidence level.
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About Issue One Action
Issue One Action is a nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to uniting Republicans, Democrats, and independents in the fight to fix our broken political system.