Exit polls show coronavirus, homelessness top concerns for California voters

Voters have been turning out to polling sites across California to vote in Tuesday's recall election, but millions mailed in their ballots ahead of time or visited early voting sites.

As of Monday, 8.7 million ballots were returned by mail and 324,000 were cast at early voting centers, CBS News reports. The election data firm L2 says that 52 percent of these early ballots were from registered Democrats and 25 percent from registered Republicans. This was expected, as there are more Democrats than Republicans in the state and Republicans tend to show up for in-person voting. Ballots were sent to voters in August.

California voters are deciding whether to keep or oust Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and a Berkeley IGS poll released Friday showed that among likely voters, 60.1 percent would vote "no" on the recall compared to 38.5 percent who would vote "yes." There are 46 candidates hoping to replace Newsom, and if more than 50 percent of voters decide he should be removed from office, the candidate who received the most votes — even if it's only a small percentage — will take office.

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CBS News reports that early exit poll data shows that for those voting no on the recall, their top concern is the coronavirus, while those who are voting yes on the recall are more concerned with homelessness and the economy. Among early voters, only a third had a favorable view of the leading Republican candidate, conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder.