Two Years After Election Turmoil, GOP Voters Remain Skeptical on Elections, Vote Counts
There has been a sharp decline in the share of Republican voters who are “very confident” that votes cast at polling places will be counted accurately.
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There has been a sharp decline in the share of Republican voters who are “very confident” that votes cast at polling places will be counted accurately.
Most U.S. adults say President Joe Biden (65%) and Republican leaders in Congress (61%) will be unsuccessful getting their agendas enacted in the next two years; only about a third say the president and GOP leaders will be successful. Republicans are less confident than Democrats in midterm vote counts – but more confident than they were after the 2020 election.
The economy is clearly the top issue for voters; fully 79% say it will be very important to their voting decisions – the highest share among 18 issues included on the survey. The public continues to take a dim view of current economic conditions. Just 17% of U.S. adults say the economy is in excellent or good shape, little changed from the 13% who said this in July.
Increasingly, Republicans and Democrats view not just the opposing party but also the people in that party in a negative light. Growing shares in each party now describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans. Nearly half of younger adults say they “wish there were more parties to choose from.”
While 64% of Republicans say GOP congressional leaders should “stand up” to Biden on matters important to their party’s voters, Democrats are more likely to say they would support efforts by leaders to find common ground.
Americans inhabited different information environments, with wide gaps in how they viewed the election and COVID-19.
Partisans differ on whether social media companies’ decisions had a major impact on the election.
Americans’ views of the economy remain negative; most say prices have gotten worse while job availability has improved.
Biden supporters are more likely than Trump supporters to be confident their news sources will make the right call in announcing a winner. And partisans remain worlds apart on how well the U.S. has controlled the coronavirus outbreak.
Republicans are about four times as likely as Democrats to say voter fraud has been a major issue with mail-in ballots.
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