The Detroit Regional Chamber has long been the voice of Southeast Michigans businesses. Partnered with The Glengariff Group, a company that produces extensive data research, they released their poll findings on June 7th, outlining where Michiganders stand on key issues from getting vaccinated and returning to the workplace to voting in Michigan’s upcoming elections.
The findings conclude that 72% of Michigan voters believe the Coronavirus Pandemic is relatively under control. Yet 75% of voters say they are still going to use some form of continued mitigation in the form of masks wearing and distancing despite the withdrawal of Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration emergency rules.
“This is going to be a slower process of easing out of some of these mitigation efforts. It just makes people feel safer. There’s a reason for some of this, we asked a question, do you personally know anyone who has died from Covid? When you talk to White respondents 36% personally know somebody. But when you talk to Black respondents 64% know someone personally who has died from Covid. The African American community has been particularly hard hit. Therefore, they are going to be slower to ease out of some of these mitigation efforts,” said President of the Gengariff Group Richard Czuba.
Additionally, 29% of Michigan voters reported catastrophic or major financial damage from COVID compared to 58% of all respondents.
Michigan has yet to hit the 70% vaccination goal set forth by the Biden administration. According to the poll, there are three ways that have the ability to move us past that benchmark.
“The two top motivations are if your employer or school makes you get it, or if your family and friends make you get it,” said Czuba
The poll indicates that 21.5% of voters would take the vaccine if it were required by work or school and 12.4% would take it if their family illicit pressure by saying a family member needed to be vaccinated to see them.
While many employers believe workers are not returning to work or applying to jobs because of the 300 dollar per week federal benefit increase, findings tell a much different story.
“I think it’s a simplistic reason to say it only because of the federal benefits. We need to understand that people are still scared of this and nervous about it in reentering the labor force,” said Czuba
76% of people employed before COVID-19 are employed in the same job.12.7% of people employed before COVID-19 are now in a new or different job. 3.7% of people are currently looking for work. 2.8% of people are waiting to be called back to their old jobs and only 4.2% of people employed before COVID-19 are not working or not actively looking for work.
As the poll moved toward voting, the motivation to vote in the 2022 election on a ten-point scale is at 9.2. In January 2018 it was at 8.9. Going into 2020 it was 9.4.
Czuba says “The political dynamics have not shifted, they are very similar to what we’ve seen over the last two elections. Voters are highly engaged and highly motivated to vote already. I think that’s reflected in the governor and the president’s numbers. These numbers look a lot like what we’ve seen in their elections, I think we can expect that to continue through 2022.”
Another topic of contention amongst voters is the idea that casting a vote should be made harder by showing a state ID or drivers license to cast a vote. 51.8% of Michigan voters believe we should make it easier to cast a ballot, while 24.7%of voters believe it should be harder by imposing ID restrictions.
Despite that, 65% of voters believe Michigan elections are safe and secure. “The only voters that don’t believe that are the republican based voters,” said Czuba
Click here here to review the Detroit Regional Chamber poll in its entirety.
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