POLL FINDS MORE NEW JERSEYANS WILLING TO BE VACCINATED

Biggest Gains Among Hispanic Voters; Large Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccine Distribution

NEWARK – As the nation ramps up distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, a new poll finds an increase in the number of New Jersey voters who say they are willing to receive the vaccine, with the largest gain among Hispanic voters. At the same time, there are stark racial disparities among who has received the vaccine to date.

The survey of 960 voters conducted by Change Research and commissioned by Newark-based non-profit Project Ready found that the number of voters willing to be vaccinated increased from 60% in November, 2020 to 71% in the most recent poll. In addition, although white voters (71%) are slightly more likely to say they would receive the vaccine than Black voters (62%), they are three times as likely to say they have already received the vaccine (18% to 6%).

“While it’s encouraging to see acceptance of the vaccine increase, we clearly have more work to do to ensure that the distribution is equitable,” said Project Ready Executive Director Shennell McCloud. “We encourage state leaders to double-down on efforts to engage communities of color when it comes to the vaccine.”

The largest gains in willingness to receive the vaccine came among Hispanic voters (55% to 77%) and Independent voters (47% to 64%), while there was almost no shift among Black voters (61% to 62%). A large partisan split remains, with fewer than half of Republican voters (46%) saying they would receive the vaccine compared to 91% of Democrats.

When those who do not plan to take the vaccine are asked why, the biggest reasons are “want to wait to confirm it is safe” (24%) and “don’t trust vaccines generally” (18%). Black voters are more than twice as likely (31%) to say they don’t trust vaccines compared to white voters (15%).

Roughly six-in-ten voters (59%) rate the state’s vaccine rollout negatively. The greatest divides in these results fall along partisan lines. 58% of Democrats say the state has done an “excellent” or “good” job in rolling out the vaccine, compared to just 6% of Republicans and 23% of Independents. 57% of Black voters rate the state’s work positively, compared with 49% of Hispanics and 27% of white voters.

Click here to view the survey memo, methodology and crosstabls.