Earlier this year, WSKG put out an online survey asking a simple question: What are the most important issues to you in the upcoming election? Nearly 80 people responded.
WSKG Morning Edition host Brent Fox spoke with WSKG news director Tom Magnarelli about the survey.
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BRENT FOX: How did folks respond to the survey?
TOM MAGNARELLI: We wanted to take the pulse of people in our region and hear what is driving folks to the polls in the Southern Tier. And we got responses from residents all across our listening area, from Steuben to Otsego counties and everywhere in between. And we also heard from people in Pennsylvania and even Florida, and what we see is the number one issue our respondents are most worried about is protecting democracy, including concerns about the potential loss of democratic norms and the threats to democratic institutions. The concerns were directed at Donald Trump in particular, and as one Broome County resident put it, "the Republican Party's shift to authoritarian values." One woman in Chemung County says, "We can't confront climate change, migration, territorial aggression or other vital issues if we abandon democracy and the rule of law." And we got a lot of comments like that. One respondent wrote about candidates accepting election results and says, "The best form of governance is losers ceding losses." And we know that Donald Trump refused to concede the election he lost in 2020, he continues to make false claims that Democrats rigged that election, and Trump said in a debate in June he would accept this year's election results if it's a "fair and legal and good election." So it's clear from our survey that people are really concerned about this issue.
FOX: Alright, so preserving democracy is the top issue. What are some of the other issues voters care about?
MAGNARELLI: So two other big topics that our listeners care about are abortion and climate change. We saw almost as much interest in those topics as protecting democracy. One woman from Bradford County, Pennsylvania says, "Abortion and the right to choose should be a private decision between a woman and her physician." Another woman from Broome County says, "If we don't have control over our own bodies, we have nothing." Men also say this is a big issue for them. They say a woman should be able to make her own decisions about what happens to her body and her life without fear. So even though abortion is legal in New York and Pennsylvania, we're seeing that voters still care a lot about this issue. Now, when it comes to climate change and the environment, we heard from people who said this is the most important issue for the world. Similar to the democracy issue, people are saying you can't really talk about anything else if the impacts of climate change continue to worsen. Some of our respondents are thinking about what kind of world they're going to leave to their children and grandchildren. As for what to do about it, one woman from Tompkins County says, "We need to make corporations and billionaires pay their fair share to support what needs to be done." Some respondents also called for increasing renewable energy and eliminating fossil fuels.
FOX: So it sounds like democracy, abortion and the climate are the three biggest issues among the people who took our survey. Are there any other topics that are on voters' minds?
MAGNARELLI: Yes, there were a lot of extra topics. I mean, we could have had, like, there might have been 50 or more altogether. But there is sort of a top 10. There was still a wide range of other issues that people are concerned about, issues like the economy, inflation and the high cost of living. Some people blame President Joe Biden for issues related to that. People care about education, the Israel-Hamas war is up there, voting rights and election integrity, beating Donald Trump, gun violence, gun control. And rounding out our top 10, immigration, immigrants' rights and securing the border.
FOX: So we have these responses from the community. What happens now? What do you plan on doing with this?
MAGNARELLI: We're going to use these results as we move forward with election coverage, heading into the fall. Our coverage area goes into several different congressional districts, all up for election. All of the Assembly and state Senate seats are also up for election. So for some of the biggest races in our area, our reporters are going to be asking the candidates where they stand on some of these issues. WSKG will be hosting a debate for New York's 52nd state Senate district race, and surveys like this one we just did will help us determine what questions we ask the candidates. Some details about that debate, that's going to be between the Democratic incumbent state Senator Leah Webb and her Republican challenger Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler. The debate will be held live at our Vestal studio on Thursday, October 17. It will be broadcast on TV, radio and online. I'm going to moderate that debate alongside our Ithaca reporter Aurora Berry. The survey is still up on our WSKG Votes web page. You can still tell us what issues are most important to you this election, and you can also check out all of our election coverage there.
