Public opinion over stay-at-home orders by governors to slow the spread of the coronavirus is now a partisan issue, according to a new poll.
Governors of both parties used executive orders to enforce stay-at-home regulations at the outset of the pandemic as a means to reduce COVID-19 infections in their states and keep hospitals from getting overwhelmed, with voters across the political spectrum complying. But with states now transitioning back to a normal economic footing and lifting mandated business closures, a fresh YouGov poll for the Economist showed 44% of Republicans now view stay-at-home orders as unconstitutional. Only 6% of Democrats feel similarly.
A full 88% of self-identified Democrats and 63% of independent voters, said in the survey that stay-at-home orders are legal under the United States Constitution. Just 43% of Republicans feel the same. President Trump, who initially supported the stay-at-home measures, is now pushing for reopening, saying states should focus on reviving an economy that has shed 40 million jobs because of the business closures implemented to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
When the poll measured the question by ideology, conservatives were most inclined to find stay-at-home orders unconstitutional (45%). At 18% and 8%, respectively, self-described moderates and liberals were much less likely to view government-enforced stay-at-home orders as an infringement of their constitutional rights.
The YouGov poll of 1,157 registered voters was conducted May 23–26 and had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
