Kentucky exit poll gives Beshear slightly better grades than Trump on handling the pandemic; sharply divided views otherwise

The exit poll of Tuesday's election in Kentucky gave Gov. Andy Beshear a slightly better grade than President Donald Trump for handling the novel-coronavirus pandemic, and found sharply divided opinions about the pandemic between those who voted for Trump or former vice president Joe Biden.

Asked if they approve or disapproved of the way Trump has handled the pandemic, 57% of Kentucky voters said they approved and 42% disapproved, but 15% of those who disapproved still voted for him.

Beshear's ratings on handling the pandemic closely resembled a poll taken Oct. 7-15 and released Oct. 21; 63% in the exit poll said they approved, and 36% said they disapproved. Both categories were about evenly divided between "strongly" and "somewhat." Biden carried Beshear's approvers 53% to 46% and the strong approvers 69% to 30%, while Trump carried the other groups.

Just over half of voters, 55%, said they thought the coronavirus in the U.S. is at least "somewhat under control," and 45% said it's "not at all under control." As might be expected, Trump carried the former group 87% to 10%, while Biden carried the latter group 68% to 30%.

Only 4% of voters said the pandemic is completely under control, while 16% said it is mostly under control and 35% said it is somewhat under control.

The poll asked, "Regardless of whom you support, would you say Joe Biden or Donald Trump is better able to handle the coronavirus pandemic?" Almost half, 48%, chose Trump, while 36% chose Biden; 10% said neither and 4% said both were equally able.

Trump has clashed with the nation's top infectious-disease expert about the pandemic. Voters were asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has handled the coronavirus pandemic? Almost two-third, 65%, approved, and 33% disapproved. Among approvers, Biden won 51% to 47% but that was within the poll's error margin of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

The poll was conducted for The Associated Press by NORC (formerly the National Opinion Research Center) at the University of Chicago, online and by phone, largely in the days before the election. The Kentucky poll surveyed 2,908 voters. The numbers will be updated as more data becomes available, and will eventually be adjusted to match the actual vote count.