By Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio News

The results of a new statewide poll show strong support for DFL Gov. Tim Walz during the pandemic and that most Minnesotans favor a move to voting by mail for the November election.

Tim Walz

The MPR News/Star Tribune/KARE 11 Minnesota Poll of 800 registered voters contacted between May 18-20 shows 65 percent approve of the job Walz is doing while 30 percent disapprove and 5 percent are undecided.

“I think overall he’s done a credible job, maybe a B or B-plus job, maybe even higher than that, in a very difficult situation,” said poll respondent James Robbins.

Robbins is a retired insurance marketing underwriter from Minnetonka who voted for Walz in 2018 and said he will do it again in two years if he has the chance.

The governor’s numbers were positive in all regions of Minnesota. His strongest approval came in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, followed by the metro suburbs. Walz did better among women than men statewide. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The three days of polling last week concluded on the same day that Walz made his latest announcement on the state’s COVID-19 response. Those guidelines allow restaurants to offer only outdoor dining and keep in place restrictions on churches and other activities. They have drawn significant pushback. Business owners and religious leaders were among those complaining loudly in recent days.

But Luke Peterson of Eagan said he believes the governor is concerned about safety.

“If he makes one call you have a group of people who are going to be mad. If he makes another call you’re going to have a group of people that’s going to be mad,” Peterson said. “You have to kind of weigh the decisions, and I think he’s choosing to keep people safe over everything else. That’s what I agree with, and that’s why I answered the poll the way I did.”

Jacob Domyanic, a poll respondent from Champlin, doesn’t think Walz is doing a good job. He wants the governor to allow more types of businesses to reopen.

“People need to get back to work,” he said. “People need to get back in the gym for health reasons, for anxiety reasons, for peace of mind. I don’t believe another month is going to make a difference.”

Barbara Szurek, a business owner from Ham Lake, is also among those critical of Walz.

“I think he’s overreacted by shutting everything down and treating us like we’re children. We have rights, so we should be able to decide what we want to do.”

Szurek is also concerned about voting by mail, even though 59 percent said they support a change in state law to allow every registered voter to receive a ballot by mail for the November election. Thirty-seven percent opposed such a change and 4 percent were undecided.

Szurek is among those raising questions about election security.

“It’s just not the way to vote. When you’re supposed to vote you’re supposed to go to the polls and vote, and that’s the way it should stay.”

During the recently completed legislative session, DFL lawmakers made an unsuccessful push for voting by mail. Republicans strongly opposed the move. President Trump is also a vocal opponent. The partisan divide was reflected in the poll results with 97 percent of Democrats in favor of voting by mail and 74 percent of Republicans opposed.

James Robbins said he plans to vote in person this year, but he thinks the pandemic makes voting by mail necessary.

“People are scared. I get that. I really do,” he said. “So, I think anything that we have to facilitate voting, especially for our growing elderly population, is something we need to do.”