State poll finds Biden lead ticking up in Minnesota

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump in Minnesota is ticking up, according to a new poll. 

Biden is leading Trump by 6 points, 48 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters, according to an MPR News/Star Tribune/KARE-11 Minnesota Poll released Sunday. Biden’s lead ticked up 1 percentage point since a similar poll of the state in mid-May. 

The recent poll found that an additional 8 percent of likely voters said they are undecided, while 2 percent said they would vote for another candidate. 

The poll also found little change in Trump’s approval in Minnesota since February. The poll conducted in September found that 43 percent of Minnesota’s likely voters said they approve of the president and that 52 percent said they did not. 

Trump’s approval is overwhelmingly driven by Republicans. Eighty-one percent of Republicans approve of the president, compared with just 9 percent of Democrats. The poll found independents relatively split, with 45 percent saying they approve of Trump and 46 percent saying they disapprove of the president. 

Minnesota voters are also split along party lines when asked about the security of mail balloting.

Overall, 50 percent said they think mail-in voting in the state is protected from significant levels of fraud, while 41 percent said the state is vulnerable. 

Sixty-four percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents said mail-in voting is protected from significant levels of fraud, while just 31 percent of Republicans said the same. On the flip side, 64 percent of Republicans said the state’s mail-in voting is vulnerable to fraud, while just 35 percent of independents and 24 percent of Democrats agreed, based on the poll. 

Trump has criticized mail-in voting for months, claiming it leads to widespread voter fraud. Experts have said there is not evidence of meaningful fraud in mail-in voting. 

The Minnesota poll was conducted by phone from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23 and surveyed 800 registered voters. There is a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.