Gallup Poll Finds Felonies and Old Age are Major Disqualifiers for Candidates

Sixty-six percent of Americans say they wouldn’t vote for a presidential candidate who is over the age of 80 or charged with a felony, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

Additionally, 70% said they would not vote for a candidate convicted of a felony by a jury.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the GOP race, faces 91 felony counts in four separate criminal cases. President Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner, is 81; Trump is 77.

The survey, taken Jan. 1-21 among 1,011 adults in the U.S., also found:

• 52% would be unbothered by the choice between Biden and Trump, with 23% indicating they would be comfortable voting for either someone who is over 80 and 21% saying they would be OK voting for a candidate charged with a felony.
• 43% of respondents asked about voting for someone over 80 and someone charged with a felony said they would not vote for either type of candidate, while the remaining 5% are unsure about both.
• 42% said they would consider backing someone nominated by their party who is a socialist, while 60% said the same of an atheist. A breakdown of support for other presidential types include: woman (93%), Hispanic (93%), Catholic (92%), Black (92%), Jewish (88%), gay or lesbian (74%), Muslim (71%), and someone over the age of 70 (63%).

The poll’s margin of error is ±4 percentage points.