New poll says Washington residents more concerned about public health than the economy

SEATTLE — A new poll from Crosscut/Elway says the majority of people in Washington are more concerned about the coronavirus’ threat to public health than to the economy.

According to the poll, 76 percent of respondents said the restrictions put in place by government agencies have worked to control the spread of COVID-19.

The poll also found that 61 percent of respondents were more concerned about lifting restrictions too early and putting public health at risk than they were about lifting restrictions too late and putting the economy at greater risk.

Crosscut said the poll was of 405 registered Washington voters and was conducted April 18-20 by phone and online. It said 38 percent of respondents voted by landline, 31 percent voted by cellphone and 31 percent voted online after receiving an invite via text message.

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Crosscut said the 92 percent of Democrats said the restrictions were working and 52 percent of Republicans agreed.

In addition, Crosscut said 82 percent of Democrats said lifting restrictions too soon was a bigger problem, while 64 percent of Republicans said keeping restrictions on too long was a bigger problem.

59 percent of independents were more worried about the risks to public health and 29 percent were more worried about the economy, Crosscut reported.

The poll comes as Gov. Jay Inslee has faced growing resistance to his stay-at-home restrictions across the state.

The sheriffs of Snohomish County and Franklin County took to Facebook earlier this week to say that they would not enforce Inslee’s stay-at-home restrictions. Both said they thought small businesses could operate with the same safety measures in place that essential businesses have implemented.

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Both sheriffs said they do support putting in appropriate measures to protect vulnerable populations.

Click here to read the message from Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney and here to read the message from Franklin County Sheriff J.D. Raymond.

However, despite the growing resistance to the restrictions, the poll found that 75 percent of respondents approved of the way Inslee has approached the pandemic. 42 percent said they approved of President Trump’s handling of the pandemic while 55 percent disapproved of his handling.

However, Crosscut said 95 percent of Republican respondents approved of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

Crosscut explained that the poll as a margin of error of ± 5% at a 95% confidence level.

“This means that had this same survey been conducted 100 times, the results would be within 5 percentage points of the results reported here at least 95 times,” Crosscut said in a news release.

© 2020 Cox Media Group