Plus polling on ads featuring Trump, AI, the death penalty, social media, future generations, prices, and the direction of the country.
All of the following items are among Election Day registered voters — those U.S. adult citizens who either are registered to vote or who say they plan to register before Election Day.
- 17% favor the Department of Homeland Security spending $20 million to run ads featuring Donald Trump; 72% oppose
- 71% think artificial intelligence is advancing too quickly, 21% think it is advancing at about the right pace, and 1% too slowly. 62% think government regulation of AI should be increased
- 41% trust Democrats more to handle AI and 33% trust Republicans more; 25% trust both equally
- 33% think the death penalty should be used more often than it currently is, 16% about as often, 6% less often, and 28% think it should never be used
- 42% say lethal injection should be used if the death penalty has to be imposed, more than say firing squad (29%), electrocution (20%), or hanging (16%); respondents could select more than one method
- 52% are worn out by how many political posts and discussions they see on social media, 23% like seeing lots of political material, and 25% don't feel strongly either way
- 45% say children today will be worse off financially than their parents when they grow up, 21% say about the same, and 14% better off
- 92% say gas prices have gone up over the last 12 months, 90% say food has gotten more expensive, 80% say housing has, and 72% say cars have
See the toplines and crosstabs for the October 2–5, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,513 U.S. adult citizens, including 1,381 who reported that they were currently registered to vote or planned to register before the election in November. Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for those who are currently registered to vote or who plan to register before the election in November is approximately 3.4%.
Image: Getty (Jeff Dean / Stringer)
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