(NewsNation) — With more than five months remaining before November’s presidential election that will pit President Joe Biden against his 2020 opponent, former President Donald Trump, a majority of Americans admit they have already grown tired of election coverage,
Polling recently conducted by Pew Research shows 62% of Americans are worn out by news coverage dealing with the election and the candidates. Only 35% of those polled say that they are enjoying the level of news being generated by the fall rematch.
Many Americans (59%) have already weighed in during previous polling, saying they are not in favor of another Biden-Trump rematch.
The percentage of those who have grown weary of election news is higher than it was in 2016 when levels of burnout were at 59% while 61% of respondents said they were tired of the coverage by this point of the election cycle in 2020.
Despite voter burnout this far in advance of the election, however, the same Pew research shows 58% of Americans say that they are paying closer attention to news regarding the two candidates than they were in 2020 when Biden defeated the former president for the bid for the White House.
Another 28% of Americans polled indicated that they are not following news of the election too much while 13% of respondents claim they are not paying any attention.
The attention span of voters could change over time, however. While the level of engagement is slightly higher than it was in May 2020, interest in the 2020 election increased substantially by October 2020, when 75% of those polled said they were fully engaged.
Those paying close attention this year tend to be either Republicans or Independents, according to Pew Research. According to polling, 62% of those loyal to the two parties have higher levels of engagement with news of the election or candidates than Democrats. The poll showed that among left-leaning voters, only about 58% acknowledged they were paying close attention.