WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s deep partisan divisions extend to trust in the vote tallies for this year’s election, as a new poll finds that Republicans are much more skeptical than Democrats that ballots will be counted accurately.
Voters generally show more distrust toward nationwide voting results compared to the tallies done by their own local election offices, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About half of Republican registered voters have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of trust that the vote will be accurately counted by their local election officials and around 4 in 10 say the same about the vote count in their state, but only around one-quarter have at least “quite a bit” of trust in the nationwide count.
Republicans voters’ overall level of trust in all three, however, is lower than it is among Democratic voters. Roughly three-quarters of Democrats say they have at least “quite a bit” of confidence that votes will be counted accurately nationwide, in their state or by their local election officials.
This year’s election marks the first presidential race since former President Donald Trump began a campaign of lies about a stolen 2020 election — a narrative that has undermined public confidence in election results among a wide swath of conservative voters, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.
Election experts have warned that Trump may be laying the groundwork to once again challenge the election if he loses.
David Farrington, a 78-year-old conservative in Fort Worth, Texas, said he distrusts mail-in ballots and ballot drop boxes, both common targets for claims of voter fraud and election conspiracies attempting to sow distrust in election results.
“It’s not the vote count that I’m worried about,” Farrington said. “I have every faith in all the precincts and their ability to count the ballots that are there. But the ballots — we don’t know if they’re legitimate or not.”
Conversely, Ruth Edwards, a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher in Tampa, Florida, said she has “never seen evidence that elections are rigged.”
“It’s just people who are upset about their candidate losing who are now claiming it’s rigged with no evidence,” said Edwards, a Democrat. “It’s ridiculous.”
Voters overall are more likely to believe that votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately by their local election officials or in their state than nationwide, according to the poll. About 6 in 10 voters have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately by their local election officials or in their state, while about half say this about votes counted nationwide.
About one-quarter in each case have “a moderate amount” of confidence. About 3 in 10 say they have “only a little” or no confidence in the nationwide count, while fewer say that about the tally in their state or by local officials.
Drew Inman, a 31-year-old Republican working in law enforcement in New Jersey, said he is skeptical that votes will be counted accurately at all levels, but especially in counties outside his own.
“I definitely trust my vote to be counted at a local level more than I trust the national vote count,” he said. “… When you go national, there’s a lot more people involved and that can create corruption.”
While ballots can include races for federal offices such as president or Congress, the U.S. does not run national elections as other countries do. All elections are run by the states and administered by local election offices in thousands of townships, cities and counties.
