New Polling Shows Overwhelming Opposition to West Virginia Legislature Prohibiting Employers from Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic
September 16, 2021
Charleston, W.Va. – A new poll released by the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce has found that four out of five voters in West Virginia see the Covid-19 and the new Delta variant as a serious issue with 57% of voters believing that the worst is still yet to come.
West Virginia Chamber President Steve Roberts stated, “The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce recently sponsored a statewide poll of voters to determine if opposition to efforts being made to end the pandemic was shared by more than a small, vocal minority. It was not.”
National Republican polling firm North Star Opinion Research conducted the statewide survey.
Key takeaways from the survey include:
- A majority of voters (51%) believe that hospitals in their area are reaching full capacity, while only 28% believe there is still capacity.
- 64% are very or somewhat concerned that if they get seriously ill, that there will not be any hospital beds available.
- 69% of West Virginian voters believe that local school boards, and not the West Virginia Legislature should make decisions on how to keep children safe in school.
- 67% of West Virginia voters said they think Employers should make decisions on whether employees should get vaccinated as opposed to only 18% who think the State Legislature should.
“The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce is committed to helping businesses and employers of the Mountain State bring an end to this pandemic and normalize the nation’s economy,” Roberts said. “To that goal, we support the decisions of employers throughout the state to utilize their best efforts to protect their employees while maintaining the rights of protected classes through reasonable accommodation.”
This survey of 600 voters was conducted by live callers from a sample selected randomly from the list of registered voters throughout West Virginia. All respondents confirmed that they are registered to vote. Calls were conducted September 7-9, 2021. Calling quotas were set by gender, age, and county according to the number of voters in each county. The margin of error for the full sample is ±4.00 percent.
View The Polling Memo Highlights
Members of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce are your small business neighbors. Chamber members employ over half of our state’s workforce and are found in every county and region of our state. More information on the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce can be found at www.wvchamber.com.