Gallup: Both parties' voting enthusiasm at record high

Sept. 27 (UPI) -- American enthusiasm for voting in this year's midterm elections is the highest it's been in nearly a quarter-century, according to a Gallup Poll released Thursday.

The poll found that this is the first time in its polling since 1994 that both parties have expressed high enthusiasm for voting.

Specifically, 61 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Republicans said they are more enthusiastic about voting in the midterm elections than usual.

Overall, 55 percent of U.S. adults said they were "more enthusiastic" about voting in November than usual; 33 percent said they were less enthusiastic compared to previous midterm elections.

The latest results are based on a poll conducted Sept. 17 through Sunday as Congress has been holding hearings on President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.

"Gallup's full midterm-election trend on voter enthusiasm -- including all measures taken prior to the final pre-election poll each year -- shows that voter enthusiasm was higher than today only once, in March 2010," Gallup's Lydia Saad said. "Today's heightened enthusiasm is the result of high levels of enthusiasm among Republicans and Democrats -- possibly reflecting both party groups' enhanced recognition of the importance of the election in light of the high-stakes Kavanaugh hearings."

Saad said March 2010 was shortly after Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and at the time 61 percent of U.S. adults said they were more enthusiastic about voting than usual.

Gallup surveyed more than 1,500 adults with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.