People attend a protest to demand the resignation of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after a third woman accused him of sexual harassment on March 2, 2021 in New York City.
Hit by Betancur | AFP | Getty Images
A whopping 70% of New York voters say Governor Andrew Cuomo should step down, according to a poll released Friday.
A solid majority of the state’s electorate, 55%, said in the Quinnipiac University poll that Cuomo should face criminal charges in connection with what New York attorney general investigators described as the sexual harassment of at least 11 women.
The poll was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday following the damning report on the conduct of the Democratic third-term governor released Tuesday by AG Letitia James.
It was released hours after the Albany County, NY Sheriff’s office announced it had received a criminal complaint from a former Cuomo executive assistant.
That assistant had told investigators for the James report that Cuomo had groped her chest and buttocks and made repeated suggestive comments on various incidents.
James said Cuomo’s behavior violated federal and state laws.
The poll found that 63% of voters believe Cuomo should be charged and removed from office if he does not step down. A slightly higher percentage of respondents said they believed the allegations that Cuomo sexually molested several women.
While Republicans were most likely to say Cuomo should resign, with 88% of GOP voters supporting the idea, 57% of Governor’s Democrats also believed he should resign now. Leading Democratic MPs in New York and President Joe Biden have also urged Cuomo to step down.
Cuomo has stubbornly denied any wrongdoing and has declined requests to stop.
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The poll also found that Cuomo, 63, now has his “lowest job approval since he took office in 2011,” with just 28% of voters approving his performance and 63% opposing it.
This is significantly lower than the previous all-time low, which had a breakdown of 39% to 48% agreement / disagreement.
The survey, which asked 615 self-identified registered voters who were called on landlines and mobile phones, shows an error rate of 4 percentage points.
“New Yorkers of all stripes are sending a clear message to Governor Cuomo that it is time to step down,” said Quinnipiac University poll analyst Mary Snow.
A Marist poll conducted Tuesday evening, hours after James released the Cuomo report, found that 59% of registered voters felt he should step down. An identical percentage of those polled said that the State Assembly should steal him if he doesn’t quit.
Cuomo faces the likelihood of being charged by the congregation on the allegations.
