Majority of voters want presidential election winner to pick next Supreme Court justice: poll

A clear majority of Americans believe the winner of the November presidential election should appoint the next Supreme Court justice, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Sunday.

The poll found 56 percent of respondents believed the winner of the election should make the appointment, versus 41 percent who favored President Trump making the appointment before the election. The survey was taken before Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the court Saturday to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The survey found 62 percent of women, 63 percent of independents and 60 percent of white voters with college degrees thought the winner of the election should make the appointment.

Pollsters also found 56 percent of respondents would be less likely to vote for Trump if he appointed a justice who would rule in favor of overturning the Roe v. Wade decision, compared to 24 percent who said they would be more likely to vote for him. On the subject of the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration is currently suing to overturn, 57 percent of respondents supported the law versus 38 percent who opposed it.

However, the survey also found a statistical tie on whether the Senate should take up a high court nomination by Trump. Forty-seven percent said the Senate should act on a nomination, versus 48 percent who said it should not and 5 percent who were undecided. Independents and women remained clearly opposed to the Senate advancing a nominee.

The poll surveyed 950 likely voters from Sept. 22-24. It has a 3.5-point margin of error. It follows several other polls suggesting voters prefer the winner of the election make the appointment by a wide margin. The most recent, an ABC/Washington Post poll released Friday, found 57 percent of adults believe the election winner should make the appointment.