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Two Years After Election Turmoil, GOP Voters Remain Skeptical on Elections, Vote Counts
Adults who are not registered to vote less likely to view voting as important, convenient, straightforward or exciting
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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