A vast majority of registered New York voters say Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign following the release of the attorney general's investigation on sexual harassment allegations against him, a new poll finds.
The new Marist poll was conducted after the bombshell report found the third-term Democrat sexually harassed multiple women. Sixty-three percent of registered voters say Cuomo should step down, though Republican registered voters were more likely (77%) than registered Democrats (52%) to feel that way.
A majority of every demographic group polled by party, region, income, education, ethnicity, age and gender say he should resign -- except "non-white" voters who said: 49% resign and 43% stay.
When it comes to impeachment, 59% say the Legislature should move forward if Cuomo won't resign, though there is no majority support among registered Democratic voters. Forty-eight percent of those polled supported impeachment in the absence of a resignation, while 80% of registered Republicans say the same.
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But on the matter of re-election -- registered voters across all party lines agree it shouldn't happen. Only 12% of all registered voters say Cuomo deserves to be elected to a fourth term. That breaks out to 18% of registered Democrats and 5% of registered Republicans. That 18% is the highest "support level" by demographic.
Cuomo Under Fire
The poll also surveyed voters as to whether Cuomo had done something illegal or just unethical or had done nothing wrong.
Among all registered voters:
- 47% say he did something illegal
- 32% say he did something unethical but not illegal
- 7% say he did nothing wrong
- 4% haven't heard about the scandal
- 11% aren't sure
The telephone poll of 614 adults (542 registered voters) was conducted Aug. 3. The error margin was adjusted for sample weights and increases for cross-tabulations. See the full results and more on the methodology right here.
In the last poll released in March, Cuomo's approval rating on his handling of the pandemic was down to 54 percent, versus 72 percent in July. His overall approval rating fell sharply as well.
