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How to cope with election stress
Matt Polacheck, a psychologist and mental health expert, joins Battleground to talk about how the barrage of news, campaign ads and robocalls for the 2024 presidential election can impact your mental health.
null - It may come as no surprise that elections are fraught with stress and anxiety for many Americans.
A new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 7 out of 10 Americans reported feeling anxious or frustrated about the 2024 presidential campaign.
A similar share said that they were interested in this year's presidential election. Only one-third said they felt excited.
FILE - In this photo illustration a man, depressiv, is sitting alone at a kitchen table. (Photo by Ute Grabowsky/Photothek via Getty Images)
The race is competitive nationally and in key swing states, according to recent polls, with neither Democrat Kamala Harris nor Republican Donald Trump showing a measurable advantage. At the same time, the candidates have offered closing arguments that are in stark contrast with each other, with Harris arguing that Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal needs, while Trump referred to Harris at a rally on Sunday night as "a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path."
Voters are feeling uncertain
In the week leading up to the presidential election, more Americans are feeling uncertain, with some groups having more anxiety this year compared to four years ago.
In 2020, about two-thirds of Americans said they were anxious about the presidential election campaign, which isn’t a huge contrast to this year’s results, but anxiety for voters has increased.
About 8 in 10 Democrats said they felt anxious this time around and two-thirds of Republicans said the same.
Independents, by contrast, haven't shifted meaningfully, and they're also feeling less worried than Democrats or Republicans. About half say they are anxious, similar to the finding in 2020.
The poll of 1,233 adults was conducted Oct. 24-29, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
Frustration is constant
The only emotion that hasn’t increased much among American voters is the level of frustration that is felt about the upcoming elections.
Roughly 7 in 10 Americans said they felt frustrated this year, which is very similar to that of 2020.
More enthusiasm for voting
In a separate poll by Gallup, most Americans are enthusiastic about voting this year compared to earlier this year.
When split along party lines, Democrats appeared more enthusiastic compared to Republicans at 77% and 67% respectively.
The increase in enthusiasm among Democrats was largely a result of Harris replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, Gallup said.