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Two Years After Election Turmoil, GOP Voters Remain Skeptical on Elections, Vote Counts
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- Two Years After Election Turmoil, GOP Voters Remain Skeptical on Elections, Vote Counts
- Partisan gap in views of election administration in the U.S. wider than in 2020, much wider than in 2018
- Republicans remain skeptical of absentee and mail voting, and they are now less confident that votes cast in person will be counted accurately
- Republican voters who have ‘warm’ feelings toward Donald Trump have less confidence in midterm election administration, accurate vote counts than do GOP voters with ‘neutral’ or ‘cold’ feelings
- Democratic voters far more likely than Republicans to say it is ‘very important’ for losing congressional candidates to concede
- With concerns over COVID-19 easing, more voters say they will vote in person at polling places
- Higher confidence in election administration across the U.S. this year than in 2020, but lower than in 2018
- GOP voters remain far less confident than Democratic voters that U.S. elections will be administered well
- Conservative GOP supporters least likely to say U.S. elections will be administered well this year
- Only modest differences by age, race and ethnicity in views of how elections will be administered
- White Democratic voters have more confidence in local election administration than Black and Hispanic Democratic voters
- High level of confidence in poll workers; Democratic voters express more confidence than GOP voters
- GOP confidence in poll workers, state election officials down from 2018
- GOP voters in Democratic-controlled states least confident in their state election officials
- Partisan gap in confidence in in-person ballot counts emerges, in contrast to 2020
- In-person voters – especially among GOP supporters – are less confident than absentee voters that mail and absentee ballots will be counted as voters intend
- Voters overwhelmingly say election rules in their own state are fair
- Most voters say it is neither ‘too easy’ nor ‘too hard’ to register and vote in their state
- Large shares living in states controlled by the other party say state election rules unfairly favor that side
- Voters in states where their party’s presidential candidate lost in 2020 now more likely than in 2018 to say state rules unfairly favor the opposing party; rise most pronounced among GOP voters in competitive states where Biden won
- Nearly all voters say voting is important; smaller majority say it’s exciting
- Adults who are not registered to vote less likely to view voting as important, convenient, straightforward or exciting
- Wide age gap over whether voting is convenient, exciting
- Expectations about ease of voting on par with 2018
- Black, Hispanic voters less likely than White voters to say voting will be easy
- Most voters plan to cast their ballots in person this year
- Preference for in-person voting grows compared with 2020 election
- Voters’ plans for returning absentee ballots